


Through Her Eyes

by MorganStark



Category: Avengers (Comics), Iron Man (Comics), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel (Comics), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Family, Father-Daughter Relationship, Gen, Hurt Tony Stark, Iron Man 1, Kidnapping, Parent Tony Stark, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark Whump, Whump, iron man dad, morgan stark - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-30
Updated: 2018-10-29
Packaged: 2019-02-08 16:11:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 29,780
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12868209
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MorganStark/pseuds/MorganStark
Summary: After her father was kidnapped in Afghanistan, Morgan Stark thought her life was over. But when Tony Stark returns with an enormous secret, she realizes that it's only just beginning. When they begin working on the Iron Man suit, neither of them realize just how far people will be willing to go to get their hands on it.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own Iron Man or any of its affiliated characters. Only Morgan.  
> I wrote this story 7 years ago so please forgive any mistakes.

I descended down the stairs of the Stark Mansion that lead to the main area of the house. Glancing out the window, I saw it was just touching on night as the sun was setting and a few stars could be seen shining in the darkening sky. Turning my gaze on the vast living room, I discovered it surprisingly empty. Usually Pepper was sitting there this time of day, typing away on her laptop or getting a few moments of peaceful rest. But today, empty.

A frown formed on my features as questions began running through my mind. Where the hell was everyone?

"Jarvis, where are Dad and Pepper?" I asked the AI, knowing it would be able to tell me in an instant.

"Mr. Stark is currently in his wardrobe, preparing for the Apogee Awards tonight. Miss Potts is in the guest room, doing the same, Miss Stark."

"Jaarrrvisss...? How many times have I told you...?" I drew out his name as I gave one of the security cameras a knowing look.

"Sorry Miss Stark...I mean Morgan."

"That's better." I said with a bright smile. Even though he was a machine, I still preferred it when Jarvis called me Morgan, not Miss Stark.

I turned my mind back to the information I'd just been told. I had completely forgotten about the Apogee Awards tonight. Dad and Pepper were going (but I knew Dad would skip out before the opening music would even be played), but for once I was staying home.  
Sure, I liked getting dressed up for a nice evening but when you have to do it twice, sometimes three times a week, it begins to tire. Plus, I was sick of explaining to everyone who I was.

By now, after going to dinners and awards since I was 10, most of the regulars knew who I was, but there were always a few unknown people who wondered why a 16 year old girl was there. Then began the tiring explanation of who I was. Most people didn't believe me at first, I mean who would? Tony Stark was known for his playboy was, not his fatherhood ways. But after I began talking, most people would remember seeing my face in paparazzi shots every now and then. If not, they would walk away shaking their heads, thinking about the delusional girl who believed she was Tony Starks' daughter. They soon learnt how wrong they were.

But I had to give them some credit, I looked nothing like my father, how were they suppose to see the resemblance? I was around five foot five, with strawberry blonde hair that went just past my shoulders in soft waves. The only resemblance I could see was in my eyes. They were the same caramel brown as Tony's. But of course, there were other indicators of my relation. I was just as stubborn as my father (something both Pepper and Rhodey always pointed out), just as smart as my father (I had followed in his footsteps by graduating MIT summa cum laude just three months ago with double majors in physics and engineering), and was just as into designing complex mechanics beyond most normal peoples imaginations (I had designed and built my own car engine by age 7). All anyone had to do was spend one hour with my and they would leave without a doubt that I was Tony Starks daughter.

Turning around and walking back up the stairs, I made my way to my father's room. I was careful to knock first even though I knew he was alone (after a few...incidents involving my father and unknown women doing things I really did not want to see, I always knocked. I did not want to see anything like that EVER AGAIN). After hearing a muffled "Enter!", I swung open the door and saw him standing in front of a full length mirror. He had on a reddy burgundy shirt with long black pants and a black jacket over the shirt. I caught his eye in the mirror and gave him a big grin. I always wondered how he could look good in anything. In fact I often wondered the same about myself. Even in sweatpants and a singlet, I still looked like a model (actually I thought I looked like any other girl but the modelling agencies that were desperate to get me begged to differ). This would explain why I had many guys running after me, but I contributed some of this to the fact that I had a multi-million dollar fortune that many wanted to get their hands on.

"Hey darling, why aren't you dressed?" He asked, still standing in front of the mirror.

Of course I knew of my father's way with women, but he always showed his fatherly side whenever I was around (but he would never show this side in front of people. He would be horrified to be caught showing a softer side and saying 'Darling'. Only myself, Pepper, Rhodey and Happy got to see that side of him. But I didn't mind, he had to maintain his "I'm so tough" personality that all guys had. What's with that? It's like the asking for direction thing!)

"Dad, I discussed this with you last week. I'm not going. Besides, you'll stay for five minutes then scuttle away to the casino then I'll be left watching a stupid awards ceremony and have to listen to boring speeches!" I sighed as a sat myself down on the end of his huge and extremely firm mattress.

He gave me a 'fair enough' look and a shrug of his shoulders. He spun around and struck a stupid model pose while saying "How do I look?"

"Women will be falling to the ground in shock at your extreme handsomeness!" After a second we both burst out laughing as he made his way over to a bench to put on some cologne.

"But speaking of women," I began, and he immediately knew where I was heading," can you at least try to not pick up any women tonight? I'm sick of meeting them in the morning in my PJ's while I'm having breakfast!" THAT had happened to many times to count.

"Fine, I'll try...but no guarantees," He added under his breath.

I knew that in the morning I would be meeting his latest bed partner, but even though I knew this would happen, I still liked to ask if he could refrain for one night. He couldn't.

"Whatever, I'm going to see Pepper before you guys leave." And with that I jumped up from his bed and left his room. The guest room where Pepper sometimes got ready for occasions such as this was just down the hall from Dad's and my own room. Once again I knocked, more out of courtesy this time (I knew there was no chance of catching Pepper doing something like Dad. She was far too professional for that).

"Come in," I heard her call out.

I pushed open the door and as soon as I spotted her, my breath got caught in my throat. She looked amazing. She had on a simple black dress that hugged her in all the right places. Her brilliant red hair was set off against the black, as it hung in curls that cascaded down her shoulders. She wore only a few pieces of simple jewellery that shone brightly.

"Wow, you look amazing Pep!" I was the only one who was allowed to call her that. Dad had tried it once, but the results weren't pretty. After spending years with Pepper, who had often taken care of me when Tony couldn't, she had become like a best friend, if not a mom.

"Thanks Morgan...You don't think this dress looks a bit...bad on me?" I knew Pepper well, and I knew now she was having one of those moments where she doubted her beauty. She was much more comfortable in a skirt and jacket that when she put on a dress, it felt slightly alien to her.

"No, you look great, don't change a thing." I flashed her a brilliant grin, one that reminded her greatly of Tony.

"Okay, Thank you Morgan," Pepper picked up her purse from where it sat on the bed and glanced at her phone. "Gosh, look at the time, we got to get going!"

She double checked her reflection in the mirror before swiftly exiting the room. I followed her out and down the hall where amazingly, Dad was ready and waiting. As soon as he laid eyes on Pepper, he had the same reaction as me.

"You look...beautiful Pepper," He smiled warmly at her before changing it to his well known playboy smile, "Ready to get going?"

"Yes," Pepper turned around and gave me a quick hug, with Dad quickly doing the same.

"See ya kiddo," He said before following Pepper down the stairs, his eyes staring intently at her swaying hips.

"Have a good night!" I called out after them as they went to the ready waiting car outside.

A deep breath escaped my lips as I slowly walked down the stairs. By now the sun had completely disappeared behind the Californian hills, and the moon and stars had replaced it. My stomach gave an unexpected rumble. I walked over to the fridge and pulled open the door. As usual, half of it was filled with chilled champagne and exotic wines with names I couldn't even pronounce. I quickly spotted a leftover slice of pizza from last nights dinner. Dad didn't have an ounce of cooking skill in him, which left me with the dinner duty most nights. Trust me, I wasn't a masterchef but I sure did a mean lasagne.

"Jarvis, what's the time?" I called out.

"The time is exactly 6:12 p.m." The AI answered immediately.

"Thanks." Even though he was just a computer system, I always though of Jarvis as just another person in this household, treating him with the same respect I gave every other human.

Knowing Dad wouldn't be home until late evening, maybe even early morning, I headed for the garage downstairs. After punching the in access code, I found my work station was just as I left it. I had given Jarvis specific instructions to not let Dad go near my work station. He had a habit of taking my tools, even though he had enough of his own. I walked over to my latest project, a 1965 Ford Mustang Coupe V8. I had gotten it at a scrap yard for $2000. It wasn't my favourite car but it was something to keep me busy after completely taking apart and reconstructing my Audi TT engine.

"Jarvis please notify me when it is 11 p.m." I had a habit of staying down here longer than I intended. Once I got started, I couldn't stop.

So I began working on the engine. I wrote down parts that needed replacing and things I needed to pick up to restore it before sliding underneath to check the damage done. Before I knew it, Jarvis was notifying me of the time. I slid out from underneath the car and thanked him again.

"You're welcome Miss Stark," he replied.

I was too tired to even ask him to call me Morgan like I normally do. I was even too tired to have a shower, despite the fact I was covered with grease. I made my way up to my room and stripped off my dirty clothes. After hopping into my PJ's, I crawled into my warm bed and drifted off to sleep wondering who would be the woman I would meet in the morning.

* * *

 

_I was running through an empty field, my bare feet getting cut on the rough rocks I stood on. I could hear the shouts of the people chasing me. They were closing in. I never saw their faces. As I spun my head around to see how far away they were, my foot suddenly got caught on an unexpected root. Before I hit the ground, my mind processed how odd this was considering there were no trees or anything within an 800 meter radius that could create the root. A sharp pain went through my entire left side as I came crashing to the ground. A scream ripped from my throat, the pain intensifying with every passing second. I suddenly remembered the people after me as their shouts grew louder. Any second and they would find me, sprawled on the ground. There was too much pain to even try and stand up. I began grabbing tuffs of grass, trying to pull myself along but going at an incredibly slow rate. The last thought that crossed my mind before they closed in on me was how annoying that buzzing sound was._

I suddenly shot straight up in my bed. My breath was coming out in gasps as I tried to recall the nightmare I was having but the details were slipping away like sand through a sieve. Why were they chasing me? The annoying buzzing sound that had penetrated my dreams was coming from my alarm clock beside my bed. With a groan I hit the off button and checked the time. 7:45 a.m.

The sharp pain in my dream hadn't left when I'd woken up. My left shoulder was throbbing in pain, indicating I'd slept on it wrong once again. Ignoring it, I swung my legs over the side of the bed and stood up, making my way to the door. Without bothering to change I left my room to head for the kitchen. I use to change before breakfast, having not wanted to be seen by a random woman in my PJ's but after a while I decided, who cares? Its not like I'm gunna see them again.

I heard voices floating through the room as I made my way towards it. I instantly recognised Pepper's, obviously talking to the woman who had come home with Dad last night.

"I do anything and everything Mr. Stark requires, even occasionally taking out the trash," Pepper's voice sounded professional while still sounding condescending at the same time, "Would that be all?"

I tried to stifle a giggle as I entered the room. Two set of eyes immediately locked on me. Pepper gave me a warm smile before leaving to prepare the car for this woman to leave. The blonde haired woman (in the shirt I'd given Dad for a Christmas present, I noticed with anger) gave me a small smile and stepped forward.

"You must be Morgan Stark." She spoke with confidence.

"And you are?" I asked, in the same tone Pepper had used.

"I'm Christine Everhart," she made a movement which looked like she went to offer her hand for me to shake but stopped and let it fall by her side. "I must say, I was surprised when I learnt Tony Stark has a daughter."

"Yes well, he doesn't talk about it often. Especially since my mother was a one night stand, just like you," I didn't bother trying to be nice to these girls anymore. A small flicker of surprise and anger crossed her face before she controlled it. "She left, came back a year later and dumped me on his doorstep, barley 3 months old. Of course a paternity test was done to make sure I was Tony's daughter before he took me in. He tried to find my mother but, she disappeared. Poof." My voice had a nice dramatic touch to it as she looked at me sympathetically. "By the way, get the morning after pill. Don't want any siblings around here."

I left her standing in the middle of the lounge room, shock written all over her face, as I left for the kitchen. I sat on one of the bar stood next to the bench after getting out a bowl and pouring some cereal and milk. The clicking of heels against the floor altered me of Pepper's approach.

"Is she gone?" I asked, looking up as Pepper leaned against the bench beside me.

"Yes, Miss Everhart is gone. And I wish you would stop telling that story to every woman who..."

"Ends up in my father's bed?" I finished for her.

She gave me a look but still said "Well, yes."

"What? It's fun! By the way, Happy Birthday!"

I jumped up from my stool to give her a big hug. She smiled warmly and thanked me before she stood up straight, adjusted her jacket slightly and left. She was probably right. I should stop telling that story. It wasn't even true. The truth was my father and mother had fallen in love at 24. Not just lust, but full blown, head over heels love. I know, hard to imagine from Tony Stark, but it's true. They had me 2 years later. I was told Dad was ecstatic when I was born but that soon changed to sadness when my mother was killed in a car accident just 3 months later. I suppose that might explain why Dad is why he is. Too sad to stay with someone in case she replaces my mom. I don't know. I will never understand what goes on in his head but I think he has never really gotten over it, or her I should say. Anyway, each year on her birthday and death date we visit her gravesite and place flowers. I get sad of course but I never really cry. I just wish I had the chance to meet her and grow up with her before she was taken away.

I was pulled out of my thoughts by the slamming of a door. I stood, emptied my bowl into the sink, placed it in the dishwasher and left the kitchen.

"Morning Morgs," Dad was heading towards the stairs that lead to the garage. Can't keep a man from his cars for long.

"Dad, aren't you leaving for Afghanistan soon?" I hated thinking of Dad in a place like that but no matter how much I had argued, he had said he had to go. I had finally given up and accepted he was going to go, but he was Tony Stark, he'd be alright, right?

"Probably but the Hot Rod is calling. I'll come say goodbye before I go though." He flashed me a smile before jogging down the steps. I let a sigh escape my lips before heading upstairs for a shower and change of clothes.

After a refreshing shower, I travelled down to the garage where Dad and Pepper were talking. As I entered the room, I heard that once again, Dad had forgotten her birthday. I shook my head and sat down at my work station, watching the pair talk. It had been obvious to me for years that deep down Dad held a special place for Pepper in his heart, whether he knew that or not, and sometimes the way I caught Pepper looking at him made me think she liked him back too. Of course both would never admit to each other (well maybe Dad would if he realized how much he liked her).

"Don't worry Pep, I got you a present!" I piped up. They both turned and began walking my way, Dad giving me an 'evil' stare behind Pepper's back for sucking up.

"Thank you, but you shouldn't have."

"Too bad, it's in your briefcase ready and waiting for you to open it," I smiled brightly at her, hoping she'd like the small butterfly necklace I'd bought for her, with real diamonds in it. Cost over $6000 but hopefully Pepper wouldn't work that out.

She returned my smile before turning back around to face Tony. "Come on, grab your suitcase and get back down here, you got to leave now."

Tony let out a fake (or was it real?) sigh before trudging out the door and up the steps. Me and Pepper rolled eyes before she followed him and I turned to my computer. I brought up my designing program and began working on the car I had been designing for over 6 months. A few minutes later, Pepper and Tony returned, with his suitcase in tow. Happy walked into the garage using the other door.

"Ready to go now, sir?" He asked, walking over to his car.

"Yep," Tony chucked his suitcase in the back of the car but instead of jumping in the back, he made his way over to his Audi R8.

"Sir, aren't you coming in this car?"

"How 'bout a race?" Dad knew even Happy couldn't resist a race. Happy smiled, nodded and said "You're on," before jumping in the front seat.

Dad quickly came over to me and gave me a big hug. I tried to stop the tears forming in my eyes. No matter how many times he went away, I always managed to get a few tears. But I think today I had a right to cry. My father was going to a war torn country for 2 days. Anything can happen.

"See you later baby," he kissed me gently on the cheek before saying a quick goodbye to Pepper and hopping in the front seat of his Audi. Happy got the head start as he left the garage first, Tony hot on his heels. As he squealed out of the garage, the few tears I'd been trying to hold back finally escaped and slid down my cheeks.

Pepper noticed this and immediately came over to hug me. She always knew exactly what to do to make me feel better.

"Don't worry Morgan; he's going to be fine."

"Yeah, I know. I just worry about him. Sometimes he acts like a 12 year old."

"Sometimes?"

We both laughed at this as I wiped away the few stray tears from my cheeks. Pepper soon left in her own Audi, saying she needed to run some errands and make sure everything was ready for when Tony returned. I thanked her once again, and reminded her of her present waiting for her.

I returned to the designing program but after staring at the screen for ten minutes, I realised I wasn't going to get anything done today. I moved upstairs to the living room and flopped down on the couch. I flipped through numerous channels on the huge Plasma TV. News, News, The Simpsons, Don't forget the lyrics, The Price is right, News. Nothing.

"Jarvis, time?"

"It is 11:12 a.m."

"Thanks Jarvis," I rested my heads on one of the soft pillows and slid my eyes closed. My mind started to drift. Before I knew it I was waking up to one of the most uncomfortable feelings in the world.

I rushed to the toilet quickly and walked back into the living room to find the sky darkening outside. I walked into the kitchen and saw the time on the microwave said 5:32 p.m. Holy crap. I never normally sleep during the day. I guess everything with Dad in Afghanistan and worrying so much just tired me out.

I grabbed a two minute meal out of the freezer and stuck it in the microwave. I couldn't be bothered to do anything more for dinner. Once it went 'ding!' and I'd let it cool enough, I grabbed a fork and went back to my spot on the couch. This time I just watched the news. Car crashes (I had to look away from the footage, even though it wasn't even the least bit gory.), floods, stock market fall. I quickly finished my barley edible meal and walked up to my bed room. Despite my nana nap, I was still exhausted.

My head had just hit the pillow before I was gone. After what seemed like just seconds, I was being shaken away and a bright light was shining. A quick glance at my clock told me it was 12:45 in the morning. Why was Pepper waking me up at this time in the morning?

As I looked up to her, my eyes still trying to adjust to the light, the first thing I saw was that she was wearing the necklace I had given her. A smile began on my face but as I looked up into her eyes, it quickly disappeared. Tears were streaming down her face, her eyes red and puffy. She'd been crying.

"What's wrong? What's...happened?" Mid-sentence, I realized what must have occurred. Dad.

"He's...he's been...captured." Pepper sniffled.

No.


	2. Chapter 2

"What's wrong? What's...happened?" Mid-sentence, I realized what must have occurred. Dad.

"He's...he's been...captured." Pepper sniffled.

No.

No. No. No. No. No. This couldn't be happening. It couldn't be.

"What..?" My voice sounded weak and strained as tears began to spill over onto my cheeks.

"Rhodey called me not long ago. He said...said that the military convoy was attacked. Tony's escorts were killed. He must have gotten out to...find Rhodey," She couldn't stop the tears streaming down her face. She was sniffling and wiping her nose on a tissue while trying to explain the events that had happened. "They believe...he was injured and then...then...they took him." She suddenly broke down and a wave of new tears began forming in her eyes.

It felt like my world was crashing down around me. Nothing made sense anymore. How could this happen? They had told me he would be greatly protected. And now look at what had happened.

Someone could have blown an air horn beside me and I wouldn't have noticed. I barley registered the words Pepper was speaking.

"They've already begun a search and rescue...but with the terrain there...they said it may take months."

I wasn't aware I had been crying until Pepper had gotten out a fresh tissue and wiped away a few tears from my face. Suddenly everything it hit me, like a brick wall. It hurt. My Dad had been captured, may never be coming back. My body began shaking and I could hear an awful wailing sound. Pepper's scared face came into view.

"Morgan, calm down." She placed her hands upon my shoulders and shook gently.

I realised that awful wailing sound was coming from my own chest. My cries and screams were mixing together, creating the sound. I tried to take in a few deep breaths and steady my shaking hands. I tried to stand and get out of my bed but I couldn't do much right now.

When Pepper saw what I was trying to do, she slipped her arm around my shoulders and helped me stand without falling. She led me out of my room, down the stairs where she placed me down gently on the lounge. I caught my reflection in a mirror across the room. I looked horrible. My hair was a mess from sleeping, my eyes were already red and I had a look of absolute terror on my face.

I knew I had to control myself. This wasn't the end of the world. They could still find him. Pepper re-entered the room with a hairbrush and box of tissues. God, that girl knew exactly what I needed, even when I was breaking down.

I thanked her quietly as she handed me the brush. After I had smoothed out my hair, I began mopping up the tears on my face. I tried to clear my head and think about everything that had suddenly happened.

"He's alive. I know it. And your Dad isn't going to give up without a fight. He's strong and I know he will do anything to get back to you."

Somehow what she said made sense. Somewhere and somehow I knew deep inside that he wasn't dead. Don't ask me how, I just knew. Suddenly a smile formed on my face.

"Knowing Dad, he'll already be planning some insane method to get away."

This made me feel better. Dad was one of the smartest people on Earth. If anyone was to escape terrorists in Afghanistan, it's him.

"Exactly," Pepper smiled and handed me another tissue. Knowing I wouldn't be going back to sleep anytime soon, she flipped on the TV, making sure not to put it on any news channels. So there I sat for 4 hours, my mind still going over the information. The more I thought about it, the more confident I became that he would make it out of there ok. Any day now we would be getting a call saying he had been fund alive, I just knew it.

Just after 7 a.m. Pepper came over to the couch with her mobile phone in hand. She handed it to me while whispering "Rhodey". I didn't know if I would be able to make it through this phone call without breaking down again.

"Hello...?" I said weakly into the phone.

"Hey Morgs. I just wanted to call to let you know I'm going to do everything and anything I can to find your Dad." His voice sounded somewhat strained, and I began to wonder if he had been crying too.

"Thanks Rhodey. I know you will. Just bring him back here safely."

"I will, don't worry about that. He'll be okay Morgan."

I nodded to myself as I whispered a Thankyou and Goodbye before handing the phone back to Pepper. The light was beginning to flood through the living room and I knew that sometime I had to turn on the news. There was no avoiding it.

Lifting the remote beside me, I flipped it to the closest news channel I could find. As if on cue, my father's image popped up on screen beside the news reporter.

"Multi Billionaire Tony Stark has been captured by terrorists while demonstrating his new 'Jericho' cluster missile in Afghanistan. His convoy was reportedly attacked while travelling back to the Air Base where he was set to fly out from today. A search and rescue is underway but the odds of finding the playboy weapons designer are minimal. We'll have more reports as they come in."

The first thing I felt when the report was over was anger. Even when his fate is unknown, the stupid news people have to mention his ways with women. Of course, the next thing I felt was sadness.

I didn't move from the lounge all day, despite Pepper's protests. I just sat on the lounge in my pyjamas. I watched the news for a while but all anyone was talking about was Tony Stark. Even when I finally changed to a channel showing kids cartoons, a small box appeared at the bottom of the TV, reporting once again that Tony Stark was missing in Afghanistan. Soon after I fell asleep to nightmares of Dad running away from armed terrorists.

* * *

A few days after Dad had disappeared, I began researching Afghanistan. It was described as a 'high, mainly barren plateau with harsh weather and very little fresh water supplies'. How was Dad supposed to survive that if he escaped from whoever had him?

Three days after hearing the terrible news, I was sitting on the lounge when something suddenly occurred to me. I don't know why I didn't ask earlier.

"Jarvis, do you have the survival rates for Afghanistan?" I asked, scared of the answer I would receive.

"Yes. The survival rate for hostages in Afghanistan is 17.64%." My heart felt like it broke in two in that moment.

Days passed to weeks and soon it was two months since Dad had disappeared. My hope that he would escape because he's Tony Stark! soon disappeared. The people that had updated us every week soon stop calling, saying they would call when they actually knew something or found him

Soon the reports on TV began to disappear. Every now and then I'd see a flash of his face on the news but I no longer got excited. I knew if they found him, we'd be the first to know. Newspaper and magazine reporters still called the house to see if I'd give them an interview but as soon as I heard their names, the phone would be back on the hook. If they were lucky enough to get in one question, it was always the same. "Do you believe your father is still alive?". I'd practically scream YES! before slamming down the phone.

But it was true. I still believed he was alive. I still don't know how but I knew that if he was killed, I would feel it. I would know.

I spent days in my room, not coming out to even eat. I just lay in my bed, wondering where my life was to go from here. It felt like I was shutting down. My Mustang sat in the garage, forgotten. My designing program hadn't been opened in weeks. My old life was down the drain. I wondered if anything would go back to being the same. I doubted it. Pepper stayed in the mansion most nights, talking through my door trying to get me to come out but I never did.

Soon it was three months since I'd last seen Dad and most, if not all hope, that he would be found was gone. I'd caught Pepper once or twice job hunting. I wondered if she'd eventually leave me. I suppose since her employer was gone, she didn't have a job. I would have offered her one for me but I was the last person on Earth who needed a personal assistance. I'd offer her one at Stark Industries but I knew she'd never be truly happy sitting behind a desk day in and day out.

One of the rare days when I was out of my bedroom was when I received the news that Dad had finally been found. I'd been sitting at the bench on one of the stools, staring down into my bowl of cereal. I pushed around some of the Fruit Loops with my spoon but I didn't eat.

As if it was déjà vu, the clicking of heels alerted me that Pepper was approaching, as she did three months ago. But something today was different. The clicking was faster, as if she was trying to run.

"Morgan!" She cried out as she rounded the corner and saw me sitting on the stool, a confused look upon my face. I saw the look of true happiness upon her face. Hope began bubbling inside but I told myself not to get excited.

"They've found him!" She burst out as she approached me, wrapping me in a tight hug as I hopped down from the stool.

"They've...found him? They really have?" Doubt could be heard in my voice but it still held a bit of happiness in it, something Pepper hadn't heard in three months.

"Yes!" A smile cracked over my face. It felt wonderful. I had wondered if I'd ever smile again. "Rhodey said they found him wondering around the desert. It was pure luck that they found him but they did! He said he'd call back once they had him checked out."

"Oh my God!" It was unbelievable! They had found him. He was coming home! I'd get my Dad back again.

Suddenly the shrill sound of a phone ringing echoed throughout the house. My smile somehow got bigger as I left Pepper's embrace and ran to the closest phone. Of course, it could have been someone else but I knew it was him, just as I knew he was alive all along.

"Hello." I said, my voice sounding hopeful.

"Hey baby," A familiar voice answered. "Miss me?"

Tears began pouring down my face. I thought I'd never get to hear his voice again. It sounded like the most wonderful thing in the world.

"Of course!" I answered through my tears, sobs escaping my throat.

"Don't cry baby, its okay, I'm fine!" It was only now I heard how awful he sounded. His voice was cracking and he sounded exhausted.

"I know. I'm just so happy!" I smiled through my tears as Pepper entered the room.

"We'll your about to get happier, I'm coming home tomorrow!"

"Oh my god! Tomorrow?!" I repeated for the second time today. I was going to see him, tomorrow!

"That's right baby. Is Pepper there? I need to make the arrangements so I get to see you tomorrow."

"Of course, here she is," I went to hand over the phone but I quickly held it back up to my ear and said "I love you Dad."

"I love you too," He answered. I handed the phone over to Pepper and watched as she spoke with Dad, a few tears of her own happiness in her eyes. Soon she said good-bye and hung up the phone. We were both ecstatic. I couldn't wait to see him tomorrow. I only hoped that the day went quickly.


	3. Chapter 3

I woke up at 6 a.m. the next day, having gone to bed at 11 p.m. I spent hours in bed before I had finally gotten to sleep. I was just too excited. I jumped up from my bed and ran into my en-suite bathroom. My shower was quick despite the fact that we had 4 hours before Dad landed back on U.S soil. I began applying make-up, making sure to put concealer underneath my eyes, where there huge bags which showed the evidence of how much (or little) sleep I had gotten over the past 3 months.

I let my hair fall in soft waves over my shoulders as I put on a simple white dress that stopped just above my knees. I put the spaghetti straps in place as I studied myself in the mirror. I chose this dress for the simple reason that it was the one Dad liked best. He always said I looked stunning in anything but this dress was his favourite.

I bounded down the stairs and nearly knocked Pepper to the ground. Pepper was always up early but today I think it was because of the same reason as mine, too excited.

"Morning!" I said brightly.

As I walked towards the kitchen, I ran my hand through the water of what I call our 'Mini Waterfall'. All it really was, was a huge piece of glass that was in front of the stairs leading to the bedrooms and the stairs that went down to the garage, with water constantly pouring down it. I had loved it ever since Dad had put it in when I was 5.

I prepared my cereal as usual but instead of eating it at the kitchen bench, I went outside and sat at the outdoor table. Everything looked so much brighter, more happier. Or maybe it was just me.

I went back into the kitchen to place my empty bowl in the dishwasher. I checked the clock. Still 3 hours until Dad was home. I sighed and made my way to the lounge. As I plopped myself down on it and flipped on the TV, a familiar face was staring back at me.

"Tony Stark has been found alive after being held captive for almost three and a half months. It is still unknown just how he escaped from the cave where he was reportedly being held but reports say he has only sustain minor burns and bruises. He is flying out of Afghanistan tonight and is due back tomorrow afternoon."

Thank God Pepper had given them the wrong details. The last thing we needed at the airport was a heard of paparazzi.

So I sat on the lounge, looking like a patient girl when all I really wanted to go was get in my Audi and speed to the Air Base. Finally after what seemed like eternity, Pepper stepped into the living room and announced it was time to leave. I immediately jumped up and practically ran down the steps to the garage, punched in the access code and within a few seconds, was sitting in the back seat, raring to go.

Pepper couldn't help but smile as she watched the girl she called her own daughter practically run to the car. She knew how she felt. When news of Tony's disappearance spread, it was like her world lost all meaning. She had had Tony in her life for so long that without him, it just seemed empty. But he was coming home, and the sun could shine again. All was well.

"Come on Pep!" I had stuck my head out of the car window, watching as she made her way to the car at what seemed like a snails pace to me.

I watched as a smile spread upon her features and she finally got into the car. We left the garage (or underground lair, as I called it) and were quickly on the freeway. Happy knew better than to stick to the speed limits today.

Twenty minutes later we were pulling up at the Air base, and I was about to get out and run to the tarmac when I realised that's where we were heading. As we pulled up to a stop, I jumped out and spotted the ambulance immediately. I hoped Dad wouldn't need it.

Pepper came and stood beside me, her hand slipping down to mind where she squeezed it tightly for a second. I looked up and gave her a reassuring smile. Suddenly the sound of a large jet engine broke the silence on the ground. I could see in the distance a huge army plane approaching. My heart began beating so hard, I thought it was going to jump out of my chest. I could hear my pulse beating in my ears as I watched it land.

It came to a halt just a few meters in front of us. Pepper could feel me getting jumpy beside her. The back of the plane began lowering and in just a few seconds I could see the outline of two people, one in a wheelchair. A look of sadness crossed my face momentarily but that was soon replaced with a smile as I saw Dad stand up, clutching Rhodey's hand tightly and begin descending from the plane.

I couldn't stand there anymore. I let go of Pepper's hand and ran up to Dad just as he had stepped onto the ground. The only thing I saw before I wrapped my arms around him was the huge smile upon his face. I was careful not to squeeze too tight or to hit his arm that was in a sling.

"I missed you Dad," I whispered as I held onto him, never wanted to let go. "I love you so much."

"Missed you and love you more." He replied. I pulled back from our embrace and smiled up to him through the tears in my eyes. They hadn't fallen yet but I knew they would soon. He grinned back down at me as I took in his appearance. He had a few scratches here and there and a few bruises that would easily heal.

"Oh are you kidding me? Get them outta here." Dad had just spotted the two Ambulance workers coming towards him with a gurney. As I let out a chuckle, Rhodey waved them off and they retreated back to their van.

Rhodey said something about having to check in with someone in the Air Base. As he turned and began to walk away, I dropped Dad's hand and ran after him. As I reached him, I pulled on his hand so he spun back around and pulled him into a hug.

"Thank you so much Rhodey," I didn't know what else I could say to the man that had rescued my father.

"Hey, it's ok Morgs," He grinned down at me as removed my arms from around him.

"Love you."

"Love you too," He leaned down and gave me a kiss on my forehead. He and Dad were the only people who would get away with doing that.

I smiled up at his one last time before turning and running back to Dad. I took his hand in mine again and led him towards the car.

"Your eyes are red," He observed as he reached Pepper. "Few tears for your long lost boss?"

You had to roll your eyes. Missing for three months and the first thing he says to Pepper is that.

"Tears of joy," She replied professionally, through I could tell all she wanted to do was throw her arms around him. "I hate job hunting."

I shook my head as I looked to the pair of them. Happy came around to our side of the luxury black car and opened the door for him.

"Welcome back, sir."

Tony nodded his head as a response and slid into the car with my help. I jumped in after him, shut the door and sat on the seat that was against the wall where Happy sat behind.

"Where to?" Happy called through the small open hole from the driver seat.

"Hogan please take us to the hospital..." Pepper begun but Dad interrupted with a firm "No."

Of course I expected we would just head home, but no, Dad had other plans.

"Pepper, I've just been in captivity for three months. I _want_ two things," I rolled my eyes, wondering just what these things were. "One, I want an American cheeseburger, and two-"

"Yeah, you can just stop right there," Pepper held up a hand. "That's not going to happen."

"Not what you think. I was going to say: And a Press Conference." As soon as the words passed through his lips, both Pepper and myself had a frown upon our face. Fair enough, I get the cheeseburger thing, but why a press conference?

"A Press...what on earth for?"Pepper voiced both our concerns as Dad looked to me and gave me a wink.

"Yeah," Tony said calmly. "Hogan, drive. Cheeseburger first."

Me and Pepper just looked at each other with confused looks before the car began making its way towards the nearest exit. Pepper got out her phone and began dialling the numbers needed to get the conference ready pronto.

There were questions that I was dying to ask Dad, and if he was calling a press conference, I wouldn't be able to wait until it's over.

"Dad...what happened over there?" I'm sure I just asked the question every one of us was dying to say.

Dad looked a bit hesitant at first but as he looked me in the eyes, I saw him relax slightly. He had to know that this was bound to come sooner or later. We were his family and we needed to know what happened to make sure he was given the appropriate care.

"Well, as you've probably already heard, my convoy was attacked as we were driving back to the base. I jumped out to try and find Rhodey but before I could do anything, one of my missiles landed in the sand beside me. I was too slow. I couldn't get away. It exploded in my face and some of the shrapnel got lodged in my chest."

Fresh tears were forming in my eyes as he told his story. Just imagining my Dad going through this was breaking my heart all over again.

"I was captured by a group known as the Ten Rings. They held me hostage and wanted me to make my Jericho missile. So I and another captive, Yinsen, began working but we weren't making the missile. We made a suit."

I could see my father's pride in his eyes. He was pleased with whatever it was he had built to help him escape.

"A suit?" Pepper looked at him quizzically.

"Yes, an iron suit. It protected me from the bullets they fired, it threw flames, even flew...for about 10 seconds and it was strong. Very strong." We could both see the smile on his lips and I immediately knew that this suit wasn't old news. He was going to do something to do with the suit.

"That's...that's how you escaped?" Pepper asked with astonishment in her voice. "Where did you get the materials to build it?"

Instantly the smile upon his face vanished.

"They had my weapons. Lots of them. I don't know how they got them but when I do..." He left the threat hanging. "I used some of the materials in them and they also brought in anything else I might need. All they wanted was their missile." He finished, somewhat bitterly.

"Dad..." His earlier words were coming back to me. "You...You said you had shrapnel lodged in your chest. How did they get it out?"

It was obvious by his facial expression he was hoping this topic would come up later but of course, leave it to me to bring up something he didn't want to talk about.

"Well...Yinsen, he was a doctor. He got most of it out of my chest but he couldn't get it all. To stop it from entering my heart, he built something like this..." Suddenly his hands flew to his shirt where he began unbuttoning it. I wondered what the hell he was doing when a blue light caught my eye. Sitting in the middle of his chest was a blue-white lighted circular mechanism.

"It's an-" He began and I quickly cut over him.

"Arc reactor." I finished in a quiet voice. My mind was travelling back to the huge one we had powering the factory. I tore my eyes away from it to see my father looking at me proudly.

"Of course, my earlier electromagnet looked nothing like this. Plus it was hooked up to a car battery but I was able to make this one to replace it."

I looked up at my father in amazement. He was able to build a mini arc reactor in the middle of a desert.

"So...it's a magnet, keeping the shrapnel from going to your heart?" Pepper asked, as if she couldn't believe what she was hearing.

"Yep," My father said simply.

"What happened to Yinsen?" I asked, not knowing the pain I was creating my father. 

"He's...he's with his family now." I could tell by the way he averted our eyes that he wasn't telling us everything. Suddenly it clicked and a small "oh" escaped my lips. Sadness washed over me. I would never get to thank the man that had saved my fathers life.

The silence in the car was broken by the sound of crackling. It was coming from the box thingy that they used to take people's orders. We had pulled up at Burger King.

"Do you want anything Morgs?" Dad asked me as a smile came back on his face and I knew he was trying to conceal the sadness he was feeling.

"No thanks," I returned his smile weakly.

"Just four cheeseburgers then Happy!" He yelled out.

Soon we were out of the drive through, Dad munching on the first of his cheeseburgers. As Happy drove toward Stark Industries, Pepper announced that the Press Conference was set to start in 20 minutes and that most of the press were already there and waiting, having been staking out the place since news of Tony's return spread.

My mind began to conjure up all the reasons why Dad would have needed to call a press conference so early. Did he just want to say 'I'm back!' or was there something more to it?

The car came to a stop at the curb and immediately the media frenzy begun. Cameras flashed, reporters held out their microphones in hope of catching a few words from Tony Stark. Dad got out of the car first and was instantly hugged my Obadiah Stane. I hadn't seen Obadiah in a few months but he looked the same as always. Big, bald and creepy. I have never really liked him but pretend to for Dad's sake.

Pepper allowed me to get out next as she usually just followed behind us as we entered the conference. As I stepped out, flashes blinded me and before I knew what was happening, Obadiah had hugged me as well. Ew. I smiled to him as he let go and I began walking towards the doors with Dad beside me. I kept a small smile on my lips, so the damn paparazzi can get their shot and leave but it turned into a grin when I saw Dad was still holding the Burger King bag.

As Dad held open the door for me, I stepped inside and wondered what was to come of the conference.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to everyone who has given this story a chance and left kudos

As soon as we entered the room, applause could be heard. Everyone was on their feet and watching as the great Tony Stark was finally seen for the first time in three months. I made a small indication with my head that I was going to stay up the back with Pepper. Dad nodded to me and made his way up through the press, Obadiah quickly following.

Suddenly I was aware of a presence behind us. I quickly turned around to see a short, balding man in a suit. Pepper turned slightly as well to see what I was looking at.

"Excuse me, Miss Potts?" He asked politely. "Can I get a moment?"

"Oh I'm not actually part of the press conference, but it's about to start any second."

"That's okay, I'm not a reporter," He pulled out a small card and handed it to Pepper. She took it without looking at it. "I'm Agent Phil Coulson with the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division,"

I kept my eyes on Dad as he made his way up to the podium, getting pats of his back like a dog (I'm sure he was loving that, not), but I still listened in on what this man and Pepper were talking about.

"That's quiet a mouthful," She replied. I noticed out of the corner of my eye that even though she was having a conversation with someone, her eyes hardly left Tony. This made me smile slightly.

"I know. We're working on it," Obviously he'd heard that many times before.

"You know we've already been approached by the DOD, the FBI, and the CIA." I could tell by her tone she just wanted this guy to disappear so she could put all her focus on Tony.

"We're a separate division, with a more… specific focus. We need to debrief Mr. Stark about the circumstances of his escape."

Crap. How was Dad supposed to explain that he made a suit that was extreme in strength and could throw flames?

Obviously Pepper was thinking the same because she simply replied, "I'll put something in the book shall I?"

That seemed to satisfy him enough because he said "Thank you." And stepped back to watch the conference.

Pepper kept her eyes on Dad as he finally approached the podium. I looked around the vast room, amazed at how many people had arrived on such short notice. As I looked back up to the podium, I realized Dad was no where in sight.

"Okay!" Stane said cheerily. "Let get...uh.." He, too, seemed to have realized Tony had disappeared. Suddenly I could hear my father's voice.

"How would it be, if everybody all sat down huh?" He said, finishing his last burger. "Y'know, then I could see you; make it a little less, formal,"

A little laugh escaped my lips as everyone in the room exchanged confused look but followed his advice and sat down on the floor. I sat down next to Pepper, making sure my dress didn't show anything.

I spotted Rhodey enter, a look of confusion upon his face as he took in the scene before him. He saw me and Pepper and began making his way towards us.

"What's with the love-in?" He asked, squatting down next to Pepper.

"Don't ask me, I have no idea what he's doing," Pepper shrugged her shoulders. Rhodey looked over to me but I did the same as Pepper and just shrugged.

Everyone watched as Stane sat down next to Tony, a few flash bulbs still going off. Tony looked up at his old family friend. "Stane?"

"Yeah, Tony?" He placed his hand upon Tony's shoulder.

"I never got to say good-bye to Dad," He spoke softly, as if forgetting he was in a room full of press. That one sentence made tears form in my eyes. Dad had rarely spoken about his parents to the press but now, there he was, sitting there, looking as if he was about to cry. This just made me want to cry even more.

"I never got to say good-bye to my father," He spoke firmly this time, his gaze going from Obadiah to everyone sitting on the floor. He briefly met my eyes but had to look away, knowing tears would form if he kept his gaze on me.

"There are questions I would have asked him. I would have asked how he felt about what this company did. If he was conflicted, if he ever had doubts...Or maybe he was every inch the man we all remember from the newsreels…"

You would be able to hear a pin drop in the room. It was so silent. Everyone was getting to see a side of Tony they didn't even know existed. They were in awe.

"I saw young Americans killed by the very weapons that I had created to keep them safe. And I came to realize that I had become part of a system that had gotten comfortable with the idea of zero accountability."

Through the crowd I saw a news reporter out his hand up tentatively. "Mr. Stark...what happened to you out there?"

I had wondered through the last part of the car trip how Dad would respond to a question like that. Well, now I was getting my answer.

"I… I had my eyes opened. I came to see that I have more to offer this world than just making things that blow up." Tony stood up from the ground and made his way to the usual spot behind the podium. I knew in that moment the soft side everyone thought they were seeing was gone and had been replaced with his business side.

"Which is why, effective immediately, I am shutting down the Weapons Production Division of Stark International-" the rest of his sentence was lost in the suddenly uproar. The press were on their feet in a second and were shouting out questions. I could feel my jaw drop.

"Until such a time as I can decide what the focus of this company should be, what direction it should take, one that I am comfortable with, and that will reflect the highest-"

The room was in chaos now. Everyone was shouting out something to Tony but no one could make out any individual questions. There were just too many people shouting. Obadiah immediately pushed Tony slightly, just enough to take over the microphone. "Hey!" He said, still trying to be cheerful. "What we should take from this is that Tony's back, and he's healthier than ever, we're going to have some more discussion-"

But no one was paying attention to him. Tony was weaving his way back towards us. He grabbed my hand in an instant and quickly led me outside, Pepper and Rhodey following us. A security guard at the door stopped the Press getting outside so we could have a moment to ourselves.

"You head on home with Pepper," He began, looking me straight in the eye. He could tell I wanted to talk him about what just happened back there but I would have to wait. "I'm just going to do a few things here before I leave, okay?"

I nodded without saying a word and he walked me back to the car. As I hopped inside, Pepper following, he waved us a small good- bye and turned to talk with Rhodey.

The car pulled away from the curb.

What the hell was Dad doing? I'd never been happy with the weapons manufacturing but I knew that was the big department that made millions of dollars. I wondered if he thought this through but I already had my answer. I knew Dad would make snap decisions but he had never made a business decision without thinking it over first. He obviously knew what he was doing.

"The board of directors are not going to be happy with him," Pepper said after we drove for a few minutes in silence.

I nodded my head in agreement but I still couldn't say anything. I wondered if this was really going to happen. Time would tell.

After 10 minutes we pulled up at the gates to the mansion. They instantly began opening as the car came within range of the senor I'd built and stuck in the dash. We drove down into the huge garage. I muttered a good-bye to Happy and slid out of the car.

"Umm...I'm gunna work down here until Dad gets home," I said as Pepper began walking towards the door.

"Okay. I gather Obadiah will be having a word with him so it might be awhile." She pushed open the door and walked up the stairs, leaving me sitting in front of my work station. What I really wanted to do was work on my car but in a white dress, I don't think so. I didn't want to go upstairs to get changed but I suddenly remembered the jumpsuit Dad had given me for my 14th birthday. I pulled it out of my bottom draw. It had been purple (my favourite colour) but after two years of wearing it, it was covered in grease and the purple could barely be seen.

I quickly stripped out of my dress and chucked on the jumpsuit. I opened the bonnet of my Mustang and started working as I waited for Dad to come home.


	5. Chapter 5

Dad didn’t get home until 5 p.m. You’d think after spending three months being held hostage in Afghanistan, that all he would want to do is come home and be in a familiar place. But he strode into the garage as if he had never left, a smile forming on his face as he took in my appearance. My hair was pulled into a messy bun, I held a spanner in my hand, there was fresh grease all over the jumpsuit and no doubt on my face.

“Hey Dad,” I resisted the urge to run up and hug him again. I didn’t want to get his shirt dirty.

“Hey, I’m going upstairs to change and get rid of this stupid sling but I’ll be back down in a sec okay? There’s something I want to show you,” He flashed me a grin before pushing open the door and bounding up the stairs, pulling off the sling as he did so.

I could hear talking a few minutes later. No doubt Pepper was questioning Dad about his recent career change. I grabbed a clean rag and went over to the side mirror of the Mustang. I began wiping the grease off my face. Just after I’d gotten the last of it off, Dad returned but in a T-shirt and slacks this time. Much less formal. As he walked in, I noticed that he’d already cut a circle in his shirt, so the Arc Reactor could be seen easily.

Before he could say anything I asked, “Are you sure you’ve thought this through Dad?”

“You know, that’s the exact same thing Pepper just asked me. And I’ll give you the same answer; Yes.”

I shook my head and shrugged my shoulders. “Fine.” But secretly I was a little bit glad. I didn’t care if we lost a little money. I always hated knowing we were making those weapons.

“Now, come over here.” He walked over to his computer area and began typing away. As I watched him, it felt like he had never left. There were still something’s that needed discussing but they could wait until later. “Jarvis, you up?”

“For you sir, always,” he responded.

“I want to enter a new project. Title is ‘Mark I’.” Suddenly something appeared on the holographic workstation beside me. As I leaned down and studied it, I realised this must have been the suit Dad had used to escape. Pretty impressive considering he did it in a cave. He must have kept the designs and scanned them. Dad picked up his light pen and began deleting parts of the armour he didn’t want.

“Is this for the Stark Industries server?” Jarvis asked him.

Dad hesitated for a second. Everything he had designed had been on the Stark Industries server. “No, for now keep this on my private server.”

“Working on a secret project, sir?” He replied. I was wondering the same damn thing.

“Cant risk this one falling into the wrong hands,” It suddenly clicked in my mind. Dad was obviously thinking someone who worked for him had sent shipments of our weapons to the terrorists in Afghanistan. There was no other way they could have gotten that many. So now, he didn’t want anyone but himself (and maybe me) to be able to access it. “Maybe mine can do some good.”

“Your actually going to make this, aren’t you? Again I mean, but better.” I walked around the hologram station, taking in all the little details of the armour. He continued to delete some of the structures before he stood up and smiled at me.

“Yep, but with your help of course.” I couldn’t help but smile. I loved working on things together with Dad. He often told me stories about him and myself at age 4, sitting down in the garage working on projects. He said that’s when he realized I would turn out a genius, like him.

“You up for it?” I could see a small flicker of doubt in his eyes.

“Hell yes!”

“Good, but there’s something we else we need to build before we start on this.”

* * *

All that night and the next morning, Dad and I worked on his new arc reactor. He said it would make the suit stronger, faster, and even have sustained flight! Now that’s something I want to see. He worked mostly by himself on it, as he needed this done A.S.A.P. Even if he did want me to help, I would have said no. All I wanted to do was watch how he could create this again. It was amazing. By the afternoon, he was just putting the finishing touches on it. I was back in my jumpsuit and working under the bonnet of my car.

“Finished!” He said triumphantly. “Now I just need you to help me get it in.” Okay, that wasn’t happening. There was no way I’d be able to put that in there without freaking out. I’m a strong girl but sticking my hands in someone’s chest wasn’t something I planned to do in my lifetime. Plus, as I had watched him work last night, I had studied the device in his chest and gathered that it must release a plasmic discharge of some sort. No thank you!

“Uhh...I can’t Dad,” I stood up and showed him my greasy hands. I knew he could just tell me to wipe them off so I quickly added, “Plus, I don’t think my hands will be able to fit. Maybe Pepper would be able to do it, she’s got small hands.”

He studied me closely for a second before leaning across his desk and pressing the intercom button. I rolled my eyes. Of course he couldn’t just walk up the stairs! “How big are you hands?” He asked her without explanation.

“What?” I heard Pepper’s voice ask over the intercom.

“Your hands. How big are your hands?” He repeated.

“I don’t understand.” I could hear the confusion in Pepper’s voice. Boy, was she in for a big surprise.

“Just get down here, I need you.” He hit the intercom button again and walked over to where he had a chair (looks like a dentist chair) ready and all the tools beside him on a bench.

“That releases a plasmic discharge right?”I picked up the rag from last night and tried to remove some of the grease from my hands as I walked over to him.

“Yep,” he said with a slight grin.

“And your not going to tell Pepper this right?”

“Nope.” I let out a laugh but quickly stopped as Pepper entered the room. Poor Pep.

Dad had already discarded his shirt and I watched as Pepper’s eyes took in this fact. "Hey," Tony said cheerfully. "Let's see'em, show me your hands." Pepper slowed down slowly and raised her hands, her eyes still fixed on Tony’s chest. "Oh wow," he said. "They are small, Very petite. I just need you to help me with something here." Although I felt bad for Pepper, I still couldn’t wait to see the look on her face.

“What something?” She was hesitant, of course.

“I’m swapping this,” he said, pointing to the device in his chest. “For an upgrade. I just ran into a little speed bump.”

“Speed bump? What speed bump?” She stopped just before the chair he was on and looked from the device to Dad to me. I averted my eyes and walked over to my computer. I sat on the chair but spun it around. I wanted to see this.

"It's nothing, there's an exposed…wire… under this device and it's kind of…" He spun the device counter-clockwise. He gently lifted it out of his chest as Pepper watched on in horror and awe. "It's touching the socket wall and causing a bit of a short."

"W-What do you want me to do?"

"Just put that over there, don't need it anymore," he said, handing her the old chest piece. She took it cautiously. "I just want you to reach in, and gently lift the wire out." Pepper set the device down on the work bench and looked to Tony as he told her what she needed to do.

“What? Cant...Cant Morgan do it?” She looked over at me and I quickly pretended to be busy.

“She’s too chicken,” he replied with a smirk as he looked over my way.

“That is so not true,” I replied. “I just have...stuff to do.”

They both just rolled their eyes. “Is...is it safe?” Pepper eyed the hole in his chest warily.

"Yeah,” I could hear some strain in Dad’s voice. Without the device the shrapnel was making its way towards his heart. "It's like Operation; just don't let it touch the socket wall."

"What's Operation?" Dad and I exchanged a glance. Who hadn’t heard of Operation?

"It's a game, doesn't matter. Just gently lift the wire, O.K.?" Tony nodded his head in encouragement. Time was ticking. Pepper began to put her slowly into his chest but pulled it out suddenly.

"Tony, I don't know. I don't think that I'm qualified to do this…"

"No, no, It'll be fine; you are the most capable, qualified, trustworthy person I've ever met...besides Morgan” he added after I gave him a look. “You're gonna do great."

“Okay,” Pepper took a deep breath and slipped her hand into the socket. I knew any second her hand would reach the plasmic discharge. “Ew! Ewewew!” Bingo! “Oh, gross, there’s puss...”

Dad let out something that sounded like a grunt and sigh. "It's not pus, it's a plasmic discharge. It's from the device, not from my body."

I watched as she squeezed her eyes shut and said “Smells.”

"Yeah it does. Okay, now it's the copper wire."

“Okay, I got it.” We were all thinking the same thing; now was the tricky part.

"You got it? Great, now just don't let it touch…" Suddenly an electric buzz sounded throughout the room. The heart monitor around Dad went crazy for a second and he let out a howl of pain. "AGH! The sides! Don't let it touch the sides…ugh, when it's coming out." He finished, even though it was too late.

“Sorry! Sorry sorry!”

"It's Okay; now make sure that when it comes out you don't pull out…" Another sound could be heard this time. It sounded like a plug being pulled out of slime. I watched as Pepper pulled the wire up, a small metal ring attached to it. "Argh!" Dad grunted. "...the end of it, like you just did." The heart monitors flat lined for a second before they started going triple time.

“Oh god, Oh god. What do I do?” She went to put the metal ring back in.

"No! Don't put it back!"I hated seeing the pain that was etched upon Dad’s face. Maybe I should have done it after all? I could only sit there and watch as the monitors told me my father was dying.

“What’s wrong?” Pepper was practically in hysterics by now.

"Nothing, I'm just going into cardiac arrest, because you just yanked out-"

“What!? You said this was safe?!” Pepper had to stop panicking or the results of this could be disastrous.

"It is, it is; now we gotta hurry," Despite the growing danger, he spoke calmly. "Now, take this, take this, we've gotta switch it out really quickly,"

“Okay...Okay” She took the new reactor from Tony’s hand, holding the cable in one hand, the actual device in the other. "Tony, it's going to be okay! I'm gonna make it okay," I tired not to laugh. She sounded like she was expecting him to die at any second. Technically he could but I wasn’t about to lose my Dad after just getting him back. "I'm going to make this better, I promise."

“Okay,” The pain was intensifying, obvious by the twisted look on his face. Pepper began lowering the wire in, trying not to hesitate. "Now," Tony said slowly. "You're going to attach that to the base plate, where the first one was…" Pepper suddenly felt something click into place underneath her fingers. "YAAAAA-ow!" The heart monitor suddenly went back to normal levels and I let out a breath I hadn’t realised I’d been holding. "Now was that so hard? That was fun right?"

Pepper slid in the rest of the reactor and clicked it into place. She suddenly began taking deep breaths while Dad sat there grinning. “Are you okay?” She asked, her hands visibly shaking slightly.

“Yeah, I feel great.” Like myself, Dad was trying not to laugh at the look upon Pepper’s face.

“Don't you ever, ever, EVER, ask me to do that, ever again," Pepper lowered her arms and closed her eyes momentarily.

“Yeah, well I wouldn’t have to have asked if Morgan could’ve just done it herself,” He jumped down from the table and grabbed a towel to wipe off some one the discharge that was on his chest. He then chucked it to Pepper so she could wipe of her hands. No doubt she would scrub them thoroughly as soon as she was upstairs.

“Next time, your doing that,” she said, chucking the towel down on the empty chair and pointing her finger at me.

“Sure, sure.” Now that all the ‘excitement’ was over I stood and returned to my Mustang.

"Oh, um...what do you want me to do with this?"Pepper had grabbed the old arc reactor from the bench.

“That?” He pulled a shirt over his head as he walked towards her. "Destroy it. Incinerate it."

“You don’t want to keep it?” Even I was surprised that Dad didn’t want it. The thing had kept him alive for months. I would have held some attachment to it after that long.

“I have been called many things, Pepper. Nostalgic is not one of them."

Pepper responded with a simple, “Will that be all Mr. Stark?”

“That’ll be all, Miss Potts,” As Pepper turned and left with the old arc reactor in her hand, I walked back over to my desk with a smirk playing on my lips.

“So what would be those other things you’ve been called then?” Dad responded by chucking the towel he and Pepper had used at me. Luckily I ducked because I sure didn’t want that smelly stuff on my face and hair.

Suddenly I thought of something Pepper could do with the arc reactor besides destroying it. I jumped up from my chair and ran up the stairs after Pepper, leaving a confused dad behind me.

'Proof that Tony Stark had a Heart' had a nice ring to it.


	6. Chapter 6

I knew something was wrong in the middle of the night. I had been sleeping when suddenly I was woken by the sound of muffled screaming. I jumped out of bed instantly and was out the door in the next second. As I threw open Dad's door, the sight I saw made me stop in my tracks. Dad was tossing and turning in his bed, the sheets twisted around his body like a straight jacket, sweat pouring down his face. It was contorted in pain and his screams were being muffled by his pillow.

After I got over my moment of shock, I was by his beside immediately.

"Dad! Dad!" I grabbed his shoulder and arm and began shaking him. All he did was groan and yell "Stick to the plan!"

It instantly clicked that he was reliving Afghanistan. I'd heard of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder but I'd never imagine Dad would have it. I should have known he would. No one could go through that ordeal and come out fine.

"DAD!" I shook him even harder. Suddenly his eyes flew open and he sat up in his bed so quickly that I lost my grip on his arm and went crashing to the floor. I let out a yell of pain as a landed badly on my shoulder.

Tony sat there for a few moments, heaving in deep breaths, before he realized I was lying on the floor beside his bed.

"Oh god, I'm so sorry Morgan!" He swung his legs over the side of the bed and quickly helped me get to my feet. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine Dad. Are you okay? You were screaming your head off," Instantly pain registered across his face. I sat down gently on the bed beside him and squeezed his hand.

"Yeah...just a nightmare," It was obvious he didn't want to talk about it.

"Dad...do you think you might...you know, need help? Like someone to help you get over the stress?" I was going into dangerous territory now.

"No, I'm fine! It was just a silly nightmare!" He sounded just a bit too forceful as he tried defending himself.

"Okay, it was just a suggestion. Just think about it, okay?"

He nodded encouragingly but I knew he would never take the advice and get help. I stood up from the bed, hiding the pain that shot threw my shoulder as I did. He stood up too, hugged me briefly then ushered me out of the room.

I knew this wouldn't be the last night this would happen.

I woke from a terrible nights sleep to the annoying sound of my alarm clock buzzing. After running into Dad's room at 1 in the morning, I'd had an extremely hard time getting back to sleep. Yawning, I managed to stumble my way out of my room and to the top of the stairs. I'd barley made it down two steps when I heard voices floating up from the living room.

"Be honest with me Pepper, how bad was she?" Frowning, I sat myself down on the step I'd been standing on and leaned in closer.

"Well...basically she shut down. She stayed in her room all day, didn't eat for days at a time, barely spoke at all," It suddenly registered that they were talking about me and what had happened in the months Dad was gone. "She was a completely different person. And it broke my heart...to see her so distraught like that."

Taking a deep breath, I had to steady myself. I didn't realise how much I had affect Pepper by the way I acted in those three months. I guess I eventually just forgot how much she really cared for me.

Dad must have done something because the next thing I heard was Pepper's clicking heels and her saying, "Don't blame yourself. It wasn't your fault. And it wasn't her fault either. She was just trying to deal with the loss of her father."

"Jarvis told me she had asked him about survival rates for Afghanistan. How could I do that to her? I left her here with her heart broken," Dad's voice cut through me like a knife. (I made a mental note to speak to Jarvis later, traitor.)

I leaned down more, and through the waterfall I could see the blurred outlines of Pepper and Dad. It looked like Pepper had taken Dad's face between her hands and she spoke to him firmly. "Tony, this wasn't your fault. No one could have known this was coming. You cannot blame yourself!"

I couldn't bear sitting here and listening to this anymore. I stood up, made sure no tears had spilled down my face (all I seemed to be doing lately was crying) and began descending down the stairs. I made sure they heard of my approach, I didn't want them thinking I'd been listening in like I had been, plus I wanted to give Pepper time to drop her hands so she didn't feel embarrassed.

"Morning!" I said with a false smile across my face.

"Hey Morgs," Dad replied. My gaze flickered to Pepper momentarily. There was something in the way she was staring at me made me think she knew I'd heard everything they'd said. Quickly, I turned my gaze back to my father. He had dark circles under his eyes which reminded me of what I looked like when he was gone.

I walked straight to the kitchen where I began my morning ritual of preparing breakfast. Bowl, spoon, cereal, milk. I placed my bowl down on the kitchen island bench in my usual spot but before I sat down, Dad approached me and pulled me into an unexpected hug. Confused, I quickly hugged him tightly but gave him a quizzical look.

"What was that for?" I asked, sitting down on the stool.

"Oh, no reason," He smiled warmly and began getting his own bowl of cereal. It had been months since I'd had breakfast with Dad. If he wasn't away, he was sleeping in till 10 a.m. "You ready to start of the suit today?"

A huge grin broke out on my face. "Yes!"

"Okay well, I gotta go see Rhodey this morning but as soon as I'm back, we'll get straight to work, okay?"

I nodded my head enthusiastically and quickly jumped up to empty my bowl into the sink. I couldn't wait to get started. As I turned to leave the kitchen, Dad said something that made me stop in my tracks.

"You know I'm proud of you right?" I spun on my heel to look at him. He had a small smile on his face but he looked scared. I'd hardly ever seen my father scared, but now that look was chilling me to the bone.

"Of course I know that," I grinned at him, trying to reassure him.

"And you know I would have never left you if I could have helped it?"

"Oh Dad," I ran up to him and pulled him into a tight embrace. "I know you would never leave me. And I know you did everything you could to get back here. And you are."

"All I could think about in that cave was coming back here to you. I realized how crap of a father I had been, but I'm gunna change that."

We were still hugging each other, me because I didn't want Dad to see the tears on my face, and Dad because he didn't want me to see the tears on his face.

"Dad, you have been the greatest father I could have ever asked for. Your always there for me, you care for me and you love me. That's all I ask for," I made sure the tears and dried on my face before I released him from my hug and smiled up at him.

"Okay. I just wanted you to know how much I love you,"

"And I do." I kept the smile on my face as I gave him a quick kiss on the cheek and left the kitchen.

I had never seen my father like that. He often told me he loved me and that he was proud but the look on his face back there...he was doubtful. He was doubtful that I knew how much he loved me. I had never seen Dad doubtful. I gotta admit, it was kinda scary.

As I jumped up the stairs two at a time, I heard Dad leave the kitchen and head for the garage. Sure enough, as I stood at the top of the stairs, a few seconds later I heard the engine of his Audi roar into life and screech away.

As I walked into my bathroom my thoughts drifted to what Dad would be talking to Rhodey about. Maybe Dad wanted him to help on the suit. Since the main transportation of the suit would be flying, and Rhodey is in the U.S Air Force, it made sense for Dad wanting him involved.

Because we would only be working on the suit, I pulled my hair up into a pony tail and pulled on an old singlet and shorts. After brushing my teeth, I left my room and headed for the garage. As I pushed in the code and walked inside, I realized there was something I needed to do.

"Jarvis?" I sat down on my computer car and crossed my arms.

"Yes, Miss Stark?" The British voice answered instantly.

"Did you tell Dad about me asking you for Afghanistan survival rates?" I could hear the anger in the voice but I tried to control it. There was no point in getting angry at a machine.

"Mr. Stark asked me to inform him about any searches or queries you asked me in his absence,"

Damn Dad. I didn't even think twice about Dad asking Jarvis about anything like that. I should have sworn Jarvis to keep silent. Too late now.

"Great," I muttered under my breath, spinning around to face my desk.

"Mr. Stark was concerned about how you coped while he was away,"

"I'm aware of that," My mind went to the conversation I had heard this morning. "Jarvis, you are not, under any circumstances, to tell Dad or Pepper that I heard their conversation this morning, okay?" The last thing I needed was for Dad to find out I had heard everything he said.

"Of course, Miss Stark." He answered. I knew that if Dad really wanted to find out anything Jarvis was hiding, he could, but at least this way gave me a little reassurance he wouldn't be finding out soon.


	7. Chapter 7

I didn't even look up from my computer as an Audi R8 came screaming down into the garage. I was all to use to that entrance.

"Ready to start?" Dad said instantly as he got out of his car. As I glanced up at him, I could tell he was desperate to get started. He wanted to be in this suit as soon as possible.

"Sure am," I stood up from my work station and walked over to one of the larger work stations where Dad was standing.

"Okay. Before we start building and designing the exoskeleton, there's something I want to do,"

Fly.

We began looking at the Jericho missile, for its repulsor technology. The cluster missiles in the Jericho used the repulsors to keep them steady and guide them towards the targets. Using these repulsors in the suit would allow it to have a steady take-off, and hopefully, a smooth landing.

We began building the basic structures of the boots. It was easy enough the build the boots (we had to get out a medical book and study the structure of the foot before we made the boots wearable) but getting the repulsors in was the hard part. We had laid the gears over the foot, around the heels and up the shin for stability, leaving hardly any room to attach the repulsors. Finally after spending most of the day in the garage, we had built the basic foot structures. They looked exactly like a metal boot but it still had the mobility of an actual foot.

We had also built two hand controls that had wires threaded from the repulsors up to the Arc Reactor in his chest and down his arms to the controls. As I watched Dad place the boots on, I tried not to laugh. It would take some time for him to get use to walking in them. The boots made him around a good 10cm taller.

He made his way to the middle of the grid he had set up in the garage floor. He was a bit hesitant trying them out for the first time near his cars (I told him if he even scratched my Audi TT he would be in trouble) but it was the only clear space in the whole garage.

I stood at a safe distance as Dad prepared himself for, hopefully, his first time flying in the new boots. Dummy hand a fire extinguisher ready in his 'hand' (I prayed we wouldn't need it), and Butterfingers was recording it. My heart was thumping loudly as Dad looked over at me and gave me a nod.

"Okay, let's do this right. Start mark half a meter back at centre."

This was it.

"Okay," He said, looking over at the video recorder. "First test. Monitors are recording, for lack of a better option, I have Dummy on standby with the fire extinguisher."

If Dummy had a face, it would be ecstatic right now. He loved getting in on the action and helping whenever he could (even if he wasn't really helping at all).

"Activate hand controls. Start it nice and easy, gonna see if ten percent thrust capacity achieve lift an' three…two…one—"

I didn't see what happened next, my eyes couldn't keep up with the flying blur that was my father. The only thing I heard was a huge SMACK!

In the second it took me to take in what had just happened, Dummy had doused what I assumed was the slumped form of the father in foam.

"DAD!" I screamed and ran over to where he lay. My mind was reliving what I'd just witnessed. The force of the repulsors had sent Dad flying backwards and he had crashed into the slope of the ceiling, crashing to the floor. Ouch!

I let out a sigh of relief as I saw Dad move and cough "Stop!" to Dummy, who ceased its spraying onto Dad.

"Oh my God Dad, are you alright?" I crouched down beside him as he struggled to sit up.

"Yeah I'm fine. Looks like we got more work ahead of us," He grinned up at me but I could see the start of a bruise forming on his forehead.

I grabbed his hand and helped him to his feet as he began pulling the cables out of the Arc Reactor. "We need to do some modifications,"

We sure as hell did.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

It took us the entire week to get the repulsor percentage right. We didn't want a repeat of what happened to Dad.

As Dad worked on the last part of the boots, I sat watching the video of his first (failed) flying attempt. I cringed when I saw it again but once I went back to the start, I studied the stance he had adopted. It suddenly dawned on me what he needed.

Hand stabilizers.

After voicing my idea to Dad, who approved of it greatly, I went back to the holographic station and began designing a repulsor/stabilizer that could fit into your palm. It was easy designing the structure for the repulsors to fit into, the hard part was making sure it could easily move, especially at the elbow joint.

Once I'd brought the design up on screen, I called Dad over so he could 'try it out'. He slid his hand into the holographic image, making sure the structure could bend at the wrist and elbow.

"Great job Morgs!"

After that, it only took a few days to make the holograph into a reality.

Dad was just fixing the last screws into place when we heard the intercom buzz. We both looked up but were too absorbed into our work to answer it.

"Isn't that heavy?" I asked as he clipped on the flight stabilizers and lifted it to get a feel of it.

"I get help," He said, tapping his free and on his Arc Reactor.

Pepper suddenly came down the stairs and entered the garage. As I looked up, I noticed she was carrying a small box wrapped in brown paper. I could see a small yellow post it note on top reading From Morgan and Pepper. She gave me a little nod and smile. I knew what was in the box. I sure hoped Dad like it.

"I've been buzzing you on the intercom for the last five minutes, didn't you hear me?"

"What?" Dad answered. We both knew she'd been buzzing, but when your building a flying suit, all you wanted to do was get it finished.

"Obadiah's upstairs," She set the box down on the closet work bench and looked at the contraption upon Tony's arm.

"Great, I'll be right up," Dad's eyes hardly left the flight stabilizer.

"I thought you said you were done making weapons?" Pepper's confused gaze went from Dad to me.

"It's not a weapon," I answered. "It's a flight stabilizer. It's completely harmless." I hope, I added mentally.

Without warning, Dad hit the button on the bench that would allow the stabilizer to draw energy from his Arc Reactor. Suddenly a pulse fired out of the repulsor. It was so strong, and focused in one area that it sent Dad flying back with a crash. Both Pepper and I flew our hands up to our ears and watched as Dad stood back up shakily.

"I didn't expect that," He looked around at all the tools and boxes he just sent crashing to the floor.

Dad gently lowered his arm back down into the holder and began taking it off, pulling the wires out of the device in his chest.

"Ehh...I might just stay down here and work," I sure didn't want to see Obadiah any more than I needed to.

"He bought pizza," Pepper knew of my weakness for pizza. She also knew how much I didn't like Obadiah but she liked me to pretend that I did.

I gave her an evil look but still smiled. I followed her up the stairs with Dad quickly following. The smell of pizza quickly filled my nostrils and I plastered on my fake smile for Obadiah. As we got upstairs, I saw Obadiah playing the piano. The only reason we kept that around all these years was because on the rare occasions that I played, it made Dad extremely happy. He said I should go to a music university but that wasn't happening.

"Morgan!" He immediately jumped up from the piano and pulled me into a hug. I knew for a fact that he liked me as much as I liked him but we kept up the happy act for Dad.

"Hi," I mumbled before grabbing a slice of pizza and flopping down on the couch next to Pepper who was already typing away on her laptop.

"How'd it go?" Dad asked. His gaze suddenly went to the pizza box. "Oh. That bad huh?" Dad followed my lead and grabbed some pizza before sitting down beside me.

"Just because I brought back pizza from New York, doesn't mean it went bad," But his tone said it all. "It would have gone better if you were there."

"You told me to lay low," He replied between mouthfuls of pizza.

"Well yeah, from the press, this was a Board of Directors Meeting."

I could see the shock register on Dad's face. "This was a Board of Directors Meeting?" He looked from Obadiah to Pepper. He instantly tried to recover. "Look, just because the stock opened down 40 points-"

"56 and a half," Pepper cut in from the couch.

"We were expecting that. The Board is just going to have to deal" He spoke firmly after casting Pepper an angry glance. I wish I'd just stayed downstairs now.

"I'm just saying, they don't like this new direction you're…"

"Being responsible is a new…?"

"Tony," Obadiah cut across him. "They've filed an injunction against you. They say you're suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, and they want control of the company."

"WHAT?! They can't do that," I cut in. Oops. Obadiah gave me a cold glance (making sure Dad couldn't see it) before looking back to Tony.

"Yes, they can. They're the Board of Directors and their opinions matter,"

That was crap. They were only Yes men, nodding their head whenever people threw money their way.

Dad didn't seem the least bit worried. "Well, we own the majority of the company anyway, so what can they do?"

"Tony, you've gotta let me give them something," Stane gestured at Tony's chest. "Why don't you let our engineers take a look at that, take it apart and see how it works."

Instantly Dad was up on his feet. This conversation had taken the wrong direction. I knew there was no way in hell anyone but us were going to see the Arc Reactor. It was too valuable to just have it shown to the entire world. Plus, it showed Dad's one weakness, and I didn't like that.

"No. This one stays with me," He began walking back towards the stairs to go back to working.

"Oh yeah?" Obadiah was still trying to control the situation but was losing it quickly. "Then this stays with me."

Damn, not the pizza. I'm sure Dad was thinking the same thing.

"Take a slice, the last one you're getting," He stood and opened the box to allow Dad to grab one slice. "Can I come down there and see what you're working on?"

Fat chance of that happening.

"Good night Obie!" Dad waved a hand before descending the steps.

Stane sighed and turned to look at me and Pepper.

"Do you know what he's working on?" He was staring me down, hoping I'd break.

I smiled up at him sweetly. "Not a clue," He knew I was just as smart as Dad, so of course I knew what he was making but I was not going to break.

"I'm going to my room," I managed to grab a slice of pizza, getting a look from Obadiah, and jumped up the steps. But instead on going to my room, I sat on the top step and waited for Obadiah to leave. I wouldn't be able to go down into the garage without him asking more questions.

I heard him and Pepper discussing some things before he left a few minutes later. Thank God! I descended down the steps, averting Pepper's gaze, and went straight down the steps to the garage. We still had more work to do.


	8. Chapter 8

I woke up to Dad screaming three nights in a row. But instead of rushing in like I did the first night, I stayed in my room, listening to him yell. It made me cry. I wish I could rush in but I knew it made him feel uncomfortable. He was so use to being strong that when someone caught him otherwise, it crushed him.

One night, Pepper had stayed late. Later than usual. I had no idea what she was working on but she was typing away furiously on her laptop. That night, I woke up again to the sound of Dad screaming. I couldn't stand it any longer. I was just about to jump out of my bed when I heard Pepper come up stairs and run into his room. Somehow, I think she would be able to help him more than I could. I could hear her talking softly to Dad.

After that night, the nightmare's decreased dramatically.

We talked a couple more times about Afghanistan but he kept it sketchy on the details. I didn't know whether that was because he simply didn't want to talk about it or because he wanted to spare me some of the more... 'gory' details.

It took us five more days to complete the boots and arm stabilizers enough for another flight test. Many of the minor components needed to be tested to take sure they were safe and could be used in the flying process. So now when Dad stepped back on the grid, boots and flight stabilizers in place, I knew this time, it would work.

"Test 37, Configuration 2.0. For lack of a better option, Dummy is still on fire safety." Dad quickly looked over at the machine. "You douse me again and I'm not on fire, I'm donating you to a city college!"

Dummy lowered its arm sadly.

"Okay, we're gunna start out real slow here. One per cent thrust."

He took a deep breath, and suddenly he was airborne. I could feel my eyes widened in amazement. He was actually flying. He was hovering four feet off the ground but I could see some strain on his face as he tried to stay upright. Dad told me later it felt like trying to learn how to ride a bike all over again.

Steadily, he lowered his arms slightly and his body followed. As his feet touched ground again, the repulsors in his boot turned off. It took his a second to maintain his balance but when he did, he looked over and grinned at me. During this, Dummy had slowly wheeled forward, with the extinguisher ready.

"Please, don't follow me around with it either. I feel like I'm going to catch fire spontaneously."

I let out a little giggle and watched as Dummy wheeled back to his original position, his arm lowered.

"Okay, let's bring it up to 2.5 per cent," Dad steadied himself again and prepared to take flight.

He was in the air again, but this time is was slightly faster but smoother. My hand stabilizers were working. He brought his knees up slightly but accidently angled his ankles wrong, sending him slowly towards the other side of the room. As he went over our work desks, papers went flying ever. Thanks Dad.

"Okay, this isn't where I want to be," He admitted nervously, trying to find the right angle to send him back to where he started. He tried to steer using his arms but that sent him flying dangerously close over his Hot Rod. "No! Not the Car! Not the Car!"

I cringed as I watched him fly over my Audi and Mustang. He better had not done damage to them.

I could see he was getting more control over where he was flying, he was getting use to the feeling and was slowly learning how to make it go where he wanted to go. He brought his hands together and was hovering over his start position. He lowered the power using his hand controls. When he was just above the floor, he killed the power. He looked like he was going to fall backwards but he caught himself.

"Ah-Ah-Ah-Ah!" I looked over to see Dummy pointing the nozzle towards him again.

Once he was sure Dummy wasn't going to fire, he looked over at me with astonished look. "Yeah, I can fly."

"Wow."

________________________________________________________________________________________________

Once we made sure the boots were still in order, we began working on the actual suit. That was the easy part. Putting a protective skin over the boots and 'arms' were simple, extending that skin to the rest of his body was harder. The chest and front pieces had to be strong enough to be able to with stand gunshots, bombs and anything else he might encounter. I had to stop myself from picturing that. The boots now had air flaps that could be controlled by the computer that was installed in his helmet.

After that was done, all we needed to do was cut out a circle in the chest piece that was the exact size of the Arc Reactor in Dad's chest.

It was just after 10 at night when everything was complete.

"Ready to see it on?" He asked me eagerly. Even if I had answered no, he still would have gone ahead.

He already had on a full body protective suit to wear underneath the armour. He began putting on the armour piece by piece. We were going to have to find a way to get the suit on quickly, this was just too slow. Just over 15 minutes later, Dad was placing the helmet over his head. Now in the suit, he looked scary. Really scary.

"Jarvis, load yourself into the HUD. Import preferences from the home unit." I could hear his voice coming through the helmet but it was slightly altered, sounding tougher. I wondered if he'd done that when I wasn't looking. Probably. "Test air flaps and manoeuvring thrusters."

I watched as the flaps on the boots opened and closed. All in working order. Jarvis's voice could just be heard inside the suit. "Beginning shutdown." The British voice said.

"Tell ya what," Oh o, I knew where this was going. "Do a weather and ATC check, start listening in on ground control."

I was about to open my mouth to argue, when Jarvis did it for me. "Sir, there are still a number of-"

"Jarvis," He said sharply. "Sometimes, you have to run before you can walk." He lifted a hand to flip open his faceplate. "I'll be five minutes, promise. You can watch everything from my computer."

I had made sure that my computer would be able to tap into his helmet so I could see and hear everything he would. Plus, I'd installed a microphone so I could talk to him while he was in the suit.

"Fine, but please be careful!" I gave him a pleading look as he grinned and flip the faceplate shut.

"Aren't I always?" He fired up his repulsors, lifting his hands to prepare himself. He leaned his body forward and in the next second he was shooting off out the garage and up the ramp. I watched as he turned his body just in time to miss hitting the wall as the ramp curved.

The second he was out of my sight, I ran over to my computer and brought up the program that would let me see everything. The screen was filled with visions of the night sky. I could hear Dad hollering inside the suit and a big grin broke out on my face.

"We did it Dad!" I yelled happily into the microphone.

I heard a small chuckle from Dad. "We sure did!"

I watched as he flew over the Ferris Wheel on the dock. His helmet view zoomed in on a small boy licking an ice cream. As he watched Dad fly over head, his ice cream fell onto the floor, leaving him sitting there with just a cone in his hand. I resisted the urge to burst out laughing.

As the view quickly changed to the black sky with the moon glowing brightly, I heard Dad talking to Jarvis. "Jarvis, what's the SR-71 Altitude Record?"

A picture of the SR-71 Blackbird popped up on both of our screens. "85,000 Feet sir."

Crap, crap, crap! Did he know what he was doing?!

"Records are made to be broken."

"Dad, no! We haven't tested the altitude on the suit. Anything can happen!" But I knew no matter how much I protested, I couldn't stop him.

"It'll be fine Morgan," He said reassuringly.

He increased his speed and I could hear the wind rushing past him. Suddenly the images in his HUD started flickering and glazing over.

"Sir, there's a serious build-up of ice on the suit," Jarvis informed him.

I'd witnessed what could happen to aircrafts when they flew too high and this happened. The fluids would freeze, electronic short out and more. This wasn't good. Yet he wasn't stopping.

Suddenly the HUD went blank.

"Dad!...Dad!" I could still hear him, but he couldn't hear me.

I could hear the wind rushing past him but I knew it wasn't because he was flying fast. He was falling fast.

"Jarvis! Deploy flaps!" The panic was evident in his voice. But there was no response.

I looked up at one of the security cameras in the garage. "Jarvis! Cant you do something?"

"I'm sorry Miss Stark but my system inside the suit has frozen due to the ice. I can not do anything from here."

I was going to listen to my father die. My heart was beating so fast and tears were already making their way down my face. "DAD!"

I heard some fumbling and I suddenly remembered we'd installed a manual switch to active the flaps, just on the side of his ride knee. I could hear the ice shatter.

The HUD inside the suit instantly lit up. My computer screen went from being black to showing the city lights coming up all too fast. Dad had gotten himself into a diving positing and at the last second he managed to pull up, narrowly avoiding a car on the freeway.

I didn't realize I'd been holding my breath until my lungs started screaming for air.

"Scared ya there, didn't I Morgs?" He almost died and was still joking.

"I'm gunna kill you when you get back!" I rested my head in my hands as I took deep breaths.

He laughed again. I watched as he began approaching our house, hovering on the roof two stories above. His voice said "Kill power," and suddenly a crashing sound could be heard. I spun on my chair just in time to see him land on his 1967 Shelby Cobra, narrowly avoiding his Saleen S7 and my Audi TT. He was not going to be happy about that. He'd spent over 7 months working on his Cobra. To make it worse, Dummy rolled over and doused him in foam again.

As the dust from the roof began to settle and Dummy rolled away (he knew he was in trouble), I made my way over to him and stood a few meters away, hands on my hips.

"You are so lucky you missed my Audi," I stared down at the silver suit.

He lifted a hand and flipped open the faceplate. "Thanks for checking I'm okay," His voice was serious but I could hear the sarcasm in it. He stood up from the crumpled mess of the car. "What happened to killing me when I got back?"

"I think I'll let it slide since you almost did it for me," I indicated to the hole in the roof. "But I swear, if you do something like that again, you will regret it."

He just laughed. "Come help me get all this off."

"Oh no, your doing that yourself. That's your punishment," I flashed him a grin and left the garage, running up the steps before he could retaliate.


	9. Chapter 9

I grabbed a soda from the fridge and walked out into the living room to inspect the newly made hole in the living room floor. A small groan escaped my lips as I saw he'd fallen straight through the piano, crushing into splinters. But a smile worked its way on my face as I realized he'd not only fallen through the piano, but through his bedroom floor. He'd be living with a hole in his bedroom roof and floor. Ha. Better hope it didn't rain.

I finished my soda and flipped through some TV channels. I was waiting until Dad had gotten off his armour before I went back down. I'd been sitting on the couch watching The Simpsons for half an hour when Dad finally emerged. He had a few bruises here and there but nothing major.

"I'll be right back," I gathered he was going to change out of the protective suit he was wearing. A few seconds later I heard a; "Aw, shit!"

I guess Dad had just found the new hole in this roof and floor. Minutes later he returned in a plain shirt and jeans.

"I didn't realize I fell through my bedroom!" I stood and laughed as I followed him into the kitchen. He grabbed an ice pack from the freezer and held it to his upper forearm where a nasty bruise was forming.

"Wanna come down and help me with some modifications?" He asked, cringing as the cold contacted with his skin.

I shrugged. "Sure," I needed to get my hands busy. I couldn't sit still for long, I always needed something to do, something to make or fix.

We walked down to the garage in silence. As he opened the door, I noticed he'd unwrapped the box Pepper had brought down earlier. As he walked over to his computer station, I went to get a closer look to see how it had turned out. I had described to Pepper how I wanted it to look and she had done it perfectly. I made sure Dad didn't notice I was looking at it. He hated getting gifts, well, at least from people he cared about. He'd take a free Audi from the Company any day. I think it was because he didn't know how to react. Someone had taken the time to get something they thought appropriate for him. He didn't know how to let that in and show the emotion. It was hard enough on Christmas, let alone on his birthday where an entire day is focused on him,

I walked over to his station and plopped myself down on a spare computer chair, spinning around in it a few times as I listened to Dad speak with Jarvis.

"The suit is not rated for high altitude, possibly due to icing," I rolled my eyes as I listened to him. He was a regular Sherlock Holmes.

Jarvis was thinking (did he think?) along the same lines as he replied; "A very astute observation, sir."

That got me wondering whether Dad programmed Jarvis with sarcasm. Sure seemed like it.

As I looked over at the silver suit, it struck me that it was a bit...plain? All the superheroes I had seen in movies and comics had their own colours, their symbols so everyone would know that it's them. I think that's what Dad needed.

"Dad, I think it needs colour," I spun back around to face him as he thought this over.

"Use the gold titanium alloy from the Seraphim Tactical Satellite. It should maintain integrity to fifty thousand feet and maintain power to weight ratio."

"Shall I render using proposed specifications?" Jarvis asked.

"Sure," I pushed my chair closer to the screen so I could see how the proposed colour looked on the suit.

It was a shining gold body suit. Dad was thinking along the same wavelength.

"Little ostentatious isn't it?"

"What was I thinking? You're usually so discreet," Again I wondered if Jarvis had somehow changed his program to include sarcasm or if he had suddenly picked it up from watching us all day. Sarcasm was like a second language in this household.

My eyes scanned the room and suddenly landed on the Hot Rod. Red and Gold sounded good.

"Throw a little Hot Rod Red in there," I suggested. Jarvis did so without waiting for Dad to approve.

Just by adding the red, it looked sleeker, stronger and tougher. Everything Dad had wanted to look like. His vision had come to life.

Suddenly our attention was drawn to the TV on the back wall. A reporter was standing on a red carpet. "Tonight's red-hot Red Carpet is at the Walt Disney Hall for the third annual Stark benefit for the Firefighters' Family Fund has been the go-to Charity gala on LA's high society calendar."

"Jarvis, did we get an invitation to that?"

"Not that I know of, sir," He replied.

I was still staring at the TV screen where an image of Dad popped up beside her. I recognised it immediately. It was taken at the Press Conference he had held when he got back. I wasn't listening to whatever the hell she was saying, I was just looking at the picture. Dad looked so broken, sitting there in the picture on the floor. To anyone else who looked at it, they would just say it was Tony Stark, billionaire. But I knew him better. I could see the change, not only in that picture (which had disappeared from the screen)but in everything he did. His voice, his movements, the way he tried to distance himself. It was all different. In some ways better, but in others worse.

"Sir the rendering process should take five hours." Jarvis's voice suddenly broke through my thoughts.

I looked at Dad's face where a small grin was creeping across it. I knew where this was heading. He stood up, grabbed his watch and looked around at the machines which were getting ready to put the paint on his suit.

"Don't wait up for me honey!" I didn't know if he was talking to me or Jarvis.

"Do you think this is wise Dad?" I jumped up from my seat and followed him upstairs.

Dad was already halfway up the stairs that lead to the bedrooms. "Hey, it's my Gala, I'm allowed to gatecrash!" And with that he jumped the last few steps and disappeared from my view.

I sighed and sat on the edge of the couch. "Call me when you need me to tie your bow!" He knew how to tie it of course but I still liked doing it for him. I vaguely recalled Pepper saying something about this event. No doubt she was already there and not expecting Tony to suddenly turn up. She was in for a big surprise.

Ten minutes later, Tony descend the stairs, decked out in his best tux. I stood up and walked over to him, grabbing his unfished tie and doing it nicely for it. He smiled down at me and pulled me into a hug when I was done with his tie. I didn't know how to explain it, but doing those little things for him made me feel more involved, more connected.

"See ya tomorrow," He kissed me lightly on the cheek and took the elevator down to the garage, giving me one last wave before the doors closed.

"Jarvis-" But before I even asked, he answered.

"10:23 p.m."

"Thanks Jarvis," I grinned up at the roof.

I don't remember how long I was sitting on the couch just thinking but the news suddenly came on again, so I turned my attention towards that. The usual pretty blonde women was talking from behind her news desk. The screen then changed to the inside of the Gala Dad was currently at. Just before the image disappeared off screen, I saw something that made my jaw drop.

Pepper, looking absolutely amazing in a turquoise, backless dress, was dancing. With Dad. He would no doubt be mentioning this to me tomorrow. I grinned at the thought of how happy Dad must be.

Suddenly I was extremely tired. Ever since Dad disappeared, I never felt like I got enough sleep. I could be dreaming for 10 hours but I would still feel drained when I woke. Before the news report was over, I'd fallen asleep.

___________________________________________________________________________________________

Just like every other morning, I awoke to the sound of my alarm clock buzzing. That's odd. My alarm clock was in my room, not in the living room. As I slowly opened my eyes, I registered the fact that I was in my bedroom. The last time I remember Dad carrying me to my room after falling asleep on the couch was when I was 11, but it made me smile. I wondered if he'd had to don the suit to carry me upstairs. I had a slender figure but I weighed different now to what I did at 11.

I pulled my hair up into a ponytail before leaving the room. I wondered who Dad had picked up last night. I walked down into the living room and found Pepper sitting on the lounge, clicking away on her laptop.

"Good morning Morgan," She smiled up at me.

"Morning!" I replied. I looked around the room. "Has she left yet?"

Pepper looked up at me with a quizzical look. "Who?"

"Whoever Dad brought home last night,"

She smiled. "Your father didn't bring anyone home last night." She looked happy about that fact.

What? I knew Dad hadn't brought anyone home since Afghanistan but he hadn't really been anyway to pick them. I thought for sure he would last night. Maybe he thought he'd have another nightmare. There's no way he'd do that in front of a girl. "Jarvis, notify me when Dad gets up." I headed towards the kitchen when his voice stopped me.

"Mr. Stark has already been up for 2 hours, Miss Stark. He is currently in the garage,"

Okay, this was getting strange. First, he doesn't pick up any women and now he's up before 10? Something's going on.

I changed my direction and headed for the garage instead. As I descended the steps, I couldn't see Dad anywhere. I pushed in the code and opened the door. I heard the TV on down the other end of the garage. Suddenly Dad came into my view. He was sitting on the lounge, one arm wearing the glove of the suit, his other hand held a screwdriver.

"Dad?" I called out tentatively.

He looked up from his glove to smile at me briefly. But there was something wrong with his smile. It was off. "Hi,"

"What's going on Dad? What happened last night?"

I saw a flicker of anger cross his face. I wondered if he hoped I wouldn't find out something was wrong. Maybe he wished I wasn't as smart as him sometimes. But it didn't take a genius to know something was wrong.

"This," He dropped his screwdriver onto the table and picked up some photographs. "This is what happened last night."

I took the photos from his hand. I was staring down at a Jericho missile. From the terrain in the background, I knew where this photo had been taken. The next photo showed men loading boxes into the back of a truck. The boxes had Stark Industries stamped across them. Oh no.

"Obadiah has been dealing under the table," I felt my jaw drop. I never liked Stane but I never thought he would do something like this.

"Are...are you sure?"

"Yes. He told me so himself. He also told me he was the one who filed the injunction against me!" The anger was clear in his voice.

Without warning, he stood up abruptly, aiming his hand towards the other end of the garage. The sound of the repulsor firing filled the room as did a crash the next second. He'd ripped one of the fluorescent lights in the garage clean off the cleaning.

I stood there in shock. The next thing he did was aim his hand at one of the glass doors near the stairs and fire. It smashed instantly. But he wasn't stopping there. He fired at the next one, and the next one.

I couldn't move. I didn't know if I could speak. It clicked in my mind what he wanted to do. What he was going to do. I forced myself to speak.

"Dad, don't go," He looked at me with a puzzled look before he sighed and began walking towards the other end of the garage.

"I have to Morgan. If I don't help them, who will? People are dying at the hands of my weapons!" His voice steadily rose over this argument. It was clear he had made up his mind and was passionate about it but I couldn't give up without a fight.

He wanted revenge.

"I already lost you once Dad. I can't do it again. I can't..." My voice broke at the end and before I bowed my head, I caught the hurt look in my father's eyes.

He walked up to me where he placed his hands on my shoulders. "Nothing is going to happen to me. You made this suit with me; you know how strong it is. I will be fine."

I nodded my head, but kept my eyes on the floor. Of course I hated knowing people were taking our weapons and killing the innocent but I hated knowing Dad was going back to the place that had changed his life.

The next thing I heard was a sigh before the machines began suiting up my father. I couldn't resist looking at the newly painted armour. It looked better than it did before.

"I love you," The robotic voice said. I couldn't speak so I just nodded.

The next second he was flying up and out of the garage via the ramp.

________________________________________________________________________________________________

I'd changed into a plain shirt and pants as soon as Dad left and brushed my teeth. I went back down to the garage and began the long wait until Dad returned.

I couldn't take this anymore. I'd been sitting on the lounge in the garage for over an hour and a half since Dad left. Judging by the suit's strength and power, he should have reached Afghanistan by now. I needed to know he was okay.

I didn't dare call him. That could just distract him and that's the last thing he needed when trying to take out a terrorist group. I was racking my brain for a way I could find out if he was alright. It suddenly hit me.


	10. Chapter 10

I was racking my brain for a way I could find out if he was alright. It suddenly hit me.

For a few years, the United States had been using satellite technology in various locations around the world to patrol and protect the air and oceans. If they spotted Dad (which they will, after noticing several things blow up in their monitored area) I would get a clear view of him. I just hoped I wouldn't get a clear view of them attacking him.

The Edwards Air Force base was the Air Combat Command Centre. All I had to do was hack into their systems to access their satellite technology.

Instantly I was up on my feet and racing to my computer. My fingers were typing away at lightning speed. I'd run into a road block. The Command Centre had all types of security systems to stop people hacking in. They were good.

But I was better.

In less than five minutes, I was in. Before I started hacking, I ran my home-made system that would stop an alert coming up to warn them. They wouldn't even know I'd been there.

The one bad side of this is that Dad would know I'd hacked in. He knew I could do it; he just didn't like me doing it. I think today I had a good enough reason.

My screen was suddenly lit up with the Afghanistan landscape. But that wasn't what I was looking at. Flying through the sky was a small red and gold aircraft. I let out a sigh of relief but that was gone in a second. If they were following him, they were attacking him.

In the next second, two F-22's came rushing up behind him. I watched as Dad suddenly span off course, spiralling in a desperate evasive mauver. Both the jets followed his tail.

The pilots were doing everything they could to get a lock on him, but Dad wasn't having any of that.

Suddenly Dad disappeared in a red and gold blur. He'd gone supersonic. Despite the dangerous situation he was in, I couldn't help but smile. The suit was working perfectly.

The satellite was having a hard time keeping up with the flying 'aircraft' but it managed to keep him on the screen. I swear my heart stopped as I watched one of the F-22 deploy a missile, heading straight for Dad. They must have gotten a lock on him.

It was getting closer. Any second it would hit him. The missile was destroyed just meters behind him. A massive explosion cloud covered my vision of Dad but I watched as the pilots quickly swerved their aircrafts to avoid the explosion.

One of the Jets began opening firing. Dad managed to avoid most of them but it was clear one hit him. He went spiralling again before he deployed his flaps. Suddenly the Jets had overtaken him and Dad wasn't to be seen on any of the screens. A few tense seconds went by when one of the Jets turned to head back. On the underside of it was a human in red and gold armour, clinging for dear life.

They had obviously spotted him too, because in the next second, the Jet was rolling like there was no tomorrow. Dad lost his grip and went flying off, straight into the wing of the following Jet. The suit didn't look like it had a scratch on it, but the Jet's wing had been completely ripped off and was now falling out of the sky.

I watched as something ejected from the plane. The pilot. I waited, holding my breath, for a parachute that wasn't opening. The satellite wasn't following Dad anymore, it was following the freefalling pilot about to die. I didn't want to see a man die but I couldn't tear my eyes away from the screen. His parachute must have been stuck.

Dad was suddenly back on screen. He was going after the pilot. Thank God. After a few seconds Dad had come level to the falling pilot and punched the side of the seat. Instantly a parachute emerged.

A smile cracked over my face as I watched Dad power away. But no one was paying attention as the satellite image stayed on the pilot, now descending safely to the ground below. By the time they turned their attention back to him, it'll be too late.

As I looked down, I realized my hands had formed fists during the chase. I reopened them to find four deep nail marks in each palm. I hadn't even realized how hard I'd been clenching my hands.

I exited the Command Centre's satellite's quickly. After I'd shut everything down (making sure to delete the history of where I'd been), I leaned back in my chair to take in everything that had just happened. Dad had just saved a life. He'd probably saved a few more down on the ground before he'd begun flying. I couldn't say anything other than I'm proud of him. And extremely angry.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________

It was another 2 hours before Dad returned home. I'd been sitting on the lounge when I heard the familiar sounds of repulsors powering down. I jumped up instantly and stalked my way over to him as he came down through the hole in the ceiling.

"You are an absolute IDIOT!" I poked a finger at his chest. Bad idea since he was still wearing the armour. It definitely hurt me more than it hurt him. He probably didn't even feel it.

He raised an armoured arm to flip open his faceplate. "Why?"

"You know why! Flying around being chased by F-22's! Almost getting a man killed!" I stood there with my hands on my hips as he walked over to the grid where the robots began trying to take off the armour for the first time (It was his idea to program the robots to place and remove his suit.)

Instantly he was giving me a suspicious look. "How did you know about that?"

Oops. I'd forgotten to get a cover story together before he returned. "I...uhh...psychic?" Now I was the one in trouble.

"Morgan," His voice was stern. I was gunna have to tell him the truth. An IQ of over 160 and I couldn't even make up a good excuse!

"Fine. I hacked into the Air Combat Command Centre's satellites," I expected yelling and grounding. I didn't expect laughing.

"I'd better...tell Rhodey to get better...security protection," He managed to say in between laughing fits.

This only made me angry. "You almost killed a man!" I'm sure he'd already killed some people on the ground. I tried not to think about that.

"Hey, I saved his life!" Now he hasn't laughing. The robots were having a hard time getting of the armour. I hoped it hurt.

"You put his life in jeopardy in the first place!" But he wasn't paying attention anymore.

"Ow. Hey be gentle will ya? This is my first time,"

"Sir, the more you struggle, the longer this will take," Jarvis replied. That meant it would take hours.

"I designed this suit to come off!" He grunted in pain as one robot pinched him.

I coughed.

"WE designed this suit to come off. Happy?" He sent a sarcastic look my way.

"Whatever," I turned to see Pepper standing in the doorway, looking down at the broken glass all over the floor. "Don't ask," I mumbled as I made my way past her. She had a mixture of confusion and shock written over her face. I couldn't wait to hear reaction to seeing Dad in a red and gold suit.

I jumped up the steps two at a time but waited at the top to hear her reaction.

"Okay, let's face it. This isn't the worst thing you've caught me doing," I heard Dad say. That sure as hell was true.

There was a few seconds of tense silence before I heard Pepper speak. "Are those bullet holes?!"

After listening to Pepper and Dad quarrel for a few minutes, I went to the kitchen. It was mid-afternoon already and I'd forgotten that I didn't have breakfast. My stomach reminded me.

I chucked two slices of bread into the toaster before jumping up onto the kitchen bench. I don't know why I yelled at Dad. I guess I was just scared for him. I expressed most of my emotions through anger.

I jumped slightly when the toast popped up. I was glad no one was around to see that. I quickly spread some jam on the toast before still down at the kitchen island bench on one of the stools. I'd barley finished my first slice when I heard heavy footsteps coming.

Without thinking, I jumped down from my seat and crouched behind the kitchen island. The footsteps stopped and a second later I heard my father's voice.

"Why are you hiding?"

I sighed before standing back up. "'Cause I thought that once you got over laughing at me, you'd yell at me,"

"What for?"

For a genius, sometimes he could be pretty dumb. "The hacking? Duh!" I resumed my seat.

"Oh that. Morgan, I'm not gunna yell at you for that. I know you were just worried about me," He smiled and stepped into the kitchen, sitting down on the stool next to mine. Suddenly a smile formed on his face. "So...how did you think the suit went?"

I couldn't help but grin. We'd done one hell of a job. "Brilliantly. The flares were a nice touch," We both laughed.

I finished my toast quickly and placed the plate in the dishwasher. "Can I go inspect the damage?"

"Err...sure."

The suit was a mess. It has scratches all over it, the paint was already chipping and not to mention the bullet holes.

"What is this from?" I asked, pointing to a medium sized dent in the left hip area.

"Oh, that's just from when I fell outta the sky," He replied, nonchalantly.

My eyes widened dramatically. "You FELL out of the sky?" Dad opened his mouth to reply but I held up my hand. "Don't. I don't wanna know."

Actually I was curious as hell but I wouldn't be able to stand there and listen to my father talk about how he was attacked.

He let out a bark of laughter before walking away from the suit and sitting at his computer station.

Dad spent the rest of the day fixing up the suit and its numerous bullet holes. I would have been down there helping him but I was afraid that if I did, my curiosity would get the better of me and I'd ask what happened over there before I hacked into the satellites.

So instead I was sitting on the couch as I tried to think of something I could do that wouldn't involve going down to the garage.

I heard some loud swearing and cursing coming from downstairs. A few seconds later Dad was coming up the stairs. He headed straight for the kitchen.

"What'd ya do?" I asked, trying not to laugh at the look on his face. He looked sour and angry at the same time.

"Burnt myself," He muttered before disappearing in the kitchen, getting an ice pack no doubt.

I stifled my laughter. Laughing would just make him angrier. I turned my attention back to the TV when Rhodey's face popped up.

"An unfortunate training exercise involving an F 22 Raptor occurred yesterday. I am pleased to report that the pilot was not injured. As for the unexpected turn of events on the ground in Gulmira, it is still unclear who or what intervened. But I can assure you that the United States Government was not involved." I smiled slightly as I watched Rhodey on the TV. He always seemed so professional when speaking to the press.

"A training exercise?" I laughed and looked over the lounge to Dad. "Is that the best you guys could come up with?"

He grinned and shrugged his shoulders as he emerged from the kitchen, seemingly over his little anger tantrum. "I think it's more professional than saying 'Tony Stark did our job for us with his super cool titanium suit.'"

"Definitely," I laughed.


	11. Chapter 11

"Hey, can you buzz Pepper down here? And can you grab me a beer as well?"

It was mid-afternoon and we were both downstairs in the garage, me working on my Mustang and Dad putting the final touches on the suit. It was looking exactly like it did before he went to Afghanistan yesterday. The paint had been redone and the dent that had been on the hip was completely fixed.

"What am I? You're Lassie?" I retorted but I still started heading towards the stairs after wiping my hands.

"Thanks baby! Love you!" I could tell he had a grin on his face.

"Yeah, yeah," I mumbled as I stalked up the stairs. Pepper wasn't on the couch so I headed for the next place I thought she might be, her office. It wasn't really an office but since she was here most of the time, she'd begun using one of the spare rooms with a computer. Dad's idea. I think it was because he wanted her around here rather than in the office at Stark Industries.

Bingo! She was sitting behind the small desk, typing away. "Dad needs to see you," She looked up from her computer with a puzzled look. "I don't know why. He's in the garage."

"Okay, I'll be down in a second," She replied and begun finishing whatever it was on her computer.

I left the room and headed for the fridge. Once I'd grabbed a beer (And shaken it 'slightly') I walked back to the garage.

"Here's your damn beer," I said, chucking the can over to Dad as I entered the garage. Lucky he caught it otherwise it would have gone straight into a computer monitor.

He smiled and placed the can on the table before tapping the top a couple of times to stop it foaming and spraying everywhere. Damn, was I becoming too predictable? Grinning, he took a long sip.

We both heard the clacking of Pepper's shoes as she came down to the garage. I walked over to the lounge and watched as she carefully entered using one of the smashed doors. The glass was still shattered on the floor but no one was stupid enough to walk around the garage barefoot.

"Hey. You busy? Mind if I sent you on an errand?" Dad smiled up at Pepper but she didn't return it. I guess they were on rocky grounds after the argument they had. Fair enough though, I'd be angry if I walked in on my boss in a suit covered with bullets. He'd just survived Afghanistan and what's the first thing he does? Fly around in a suit, getting shot at.

Pepper kept silent and just nodded her head dutifully.

"I need you to go to my office," He said. "You're gonna hack into the mainframe and retrieve all the recent shipping manifests. This is a Lock Chip," He unplugged a USB key and handed it to her. "This will get you in. It's probably under executive files, but if not, he put it on a Ghost Drive, in which case you'll need to look for the lowest numeric heading."

Most personal assistants would have just nodded their heads and obey him like a mindless zombie, but not Pepper. That's one of the things I loved about her. She never just bowed down and obeyed Dad. She always did what she thought was best for him, even if he disagreed.

"And what do you plan to do with this information if I bring it back here?" She questioned him, one hand upon her hip.

"Same drill. They've been dealing under the table, and I'm going to stop them. I'm going to find my weapons, and I'm going to destroy them." He replied calmly.

Oh no, he wasn't going to fly off into the sunset to destroy some weapons. Not again.

"Tony, you know that I would help you with anything, but I cannot help you if you're going to start all this again," Pepper let her hand fall from her hip as she let out an exasperated sigh.

And for the first time I'd ever seen, Dad lost his patience with her. "There is nothing except this. There's no art opening, no charity, nothing to sign. There's the next mission, and nothing else."

I'd never seen Dad so passionate about something like this. I thought he would use the suit to stop the people that had held him hostage from getting his weapons, like he was doing, but he wanted to do more. He wanted to help people, protect them. Looks like I was going to have to get use to Dad risking his life in the suit everyday.

"Is that so?" She questioned. This was one of the first fights I'd ever seen them have, besides the one they had yesterday after Pepper caught him in the damaged suit. "Then I quit," And with that she threw the USB down on a table and turned to leave.

We were all shocked, even Pepper. She couldn't believe the words that had just passed through her lips. She loved this job and never thought she quit but she couldn't stay here any longer if this was what Tony was going to do. She didn't want to walk in one day to find him gone and suddenly get a phone call saying he was killed doing whatever it was he wanted to do. She wouldn't help him kill himself.

"You stood by my side all these years while I reaped the benefits of destruction. Now that I'm trying to protect the people I've put in harm's way, you're going to walk out?" Dad's voice sounded incredulous as he watched her retreating figure.

Pepper spun back around to face him, obvious she was trying to hold in her emotions. "You're going to kill yourself, Tony. I'm not going to be apart of it,"

That stung more than anything. It made me feel like I was helping my Dad to commit suicide. She turned to leave again but the hurt in his voice when he spoke again made her stop.

"I shouldn't be alive..."

She turned again to look at him, but her hardened face had gone. She'd never heard Tony sound like that. He sounded...dejected.

"Unless it was for a reason," He continued, sounding more broken than ever. "I'm not crazy Pepper, I just finally know...what I have to do. And I know in my heart that it's right,"

Pepper was just as stunned as I was but what he said had gotten through to her. She hesitated slightly, but made her way back to the table she'd thrown the USB on. With a sigh, she picked it up and turned to leave.

"I trust you Tony," She said, before walking up the steps.

Wow. I seriously didn't know what to say after that. The way Dad had spoken suddenly made me feel awful that I had been trying to stop him. This is what he really wanted to do. Who was I to stand in his way?

"Dad...I'm sorry," I said after a few minutes in tense silence. "I'm sorry for yelling at you before and for trying to stand in your way. I finally get why you're doing what you're doing, and I'm proud of you for that." God, what was it with me and crying lately? Tears were making their tracks down my cheeks.

Instantly Dad was off his seat and sitting beside me on the lounge, pulling me into a one armed hug. "Don't be sorry. I know you're just trying to protect me but I have to do this."

I nodded my head silently.

"Thank you for understanding. Hey! At least if I die in the suit, you got a great story to tell at my funeral," The tough act was back up again. I tried to laugh but failed miserably.

He gave me a kiss on the cheek before moving back to his computer station leaving me staring aimlessly at the TV.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

I was getting restless, sitting and waiting for Pepper to return. I knew it was a simple errand. Go to office, get information, leave but for some reason I had a strange feeling that it wasn't going to be that simple. I had to remind myself Pepper's tough, despite her petite frame, she can take care of herself.

I could see Dad was feeling the same way but was doing his best to keep his feelings hidden.

"Do you believe this is all Obadiah's doing?" I asked suddenly. I'd been sitting there thinking about it and that's the only logical conclusion I could come up with.

"Yes. No matter how much I thought I could trust him, he's been dealing under the table and behind my back and if my suspicions are correct, he also played a hand in my kidnap," I watched as Dad's face hardened as he spoke. This was someone he thought he could trust, and that trust can been thrown back in his face. I hated to see what Dad was going to do to Obadiah if his hunch was proven correct. Though if it is, he deserves it. To think that Obadiah had arranged Dad's kidnap made my blood boil. He had caused all this pain and suffering, and now he deserved to suffer.

I tried to stop thinking about that; it would only make me angrier. There wasn't even proof yet that Stane did have a role in Afghanistan but the more I thought about it, the more sense it made.

3 hours had passed since Pepper left on her errand and she still hadn't returned. The sky outside had darkened and so had Dad's mood. We were both beginning to think we'd sent Pepper straight into danger. It didn't take this long to get some files from the office. One-one and a half hours, tops.

I was still sitting on the lounge, the TV still on, but I wasn't paying attention. We were both getting agitated and anxious.

"I'm going to get another drink. Do you want anything?" Dad heavied himself up from the computer chair he hadn't left in 3 hours.

"No thanks," I glanced over as he walked towards the stairs. "Dad, shouldn't we call Pepper or someone at the office?"

"I'll give her another half hour. If she hasn't returned or called after that, I'll go over to the office myself," He gave me a small smile before leaving.

I tried to reassure myself that everything was okay but deep down I knew something was wrong. I begun biting my nails out of nervousness, something I hadn't in years.

Five minutes passed since Dad had left. It only took a minute to grab another drink (Dad had done it so many times that I'd timed him).

"Jarvis?" No response. "Jarvis?!"

Jarvis had always answered when called. What was up? I walked over to Dad's computers and brought up on the screen Jarvis's computer system. The screen read; Currently Disabled.

That's odd. I can't remember a time when Jarvis had been purposely disabled. Maybe while Dad had been sitting there for three hours he had done it? I couldn't image why but there was only one way to find out.

As I walked towards the stairs, I could hear voice's talking above but I couldn't make out who it was or what they were saying. A frown formed on my face. I hadn't heard anyone knock at the door.

I began walking up the stairs, my mind wondering who was above and why Jarvis was disabled. I tried to convince myself Dad was just upgrading or fixing Jarvis but Jarvis had never needed fixing in the 15 years since he was created.

I came to the last few steps and I could see two figures blurred through the waterfall. Curious, I jumped up the last couple of stairs and had barely taken two steps before my mind comprehended the scene I was witnessing.

Dad was slouched on the lounge, his face was white as a ghost and twisted in pain. Standing above him was Obadiah Stane. In his hand, was an Arc Reactor. Dad's Arc Reactor. My eyes widened as I saw the empty hole in Dad's chest.

Before I could turn around and run for help, I heard a buzzing sound and my muscles instantly seized up.


	12. Chapter 12

I should have expected this. Why else would Dad be sitting there on the couch while Obadiah took the Arc Reactor? He wouldn't have taken this lying down if he could have helped it. But I hadn't seen the Stark Paralyser in over two years, how was I supposed to know he would use it?

If I could have shown any emotion on my face, it would have been anger. All I wanted to do was punch Obadiah's stupid smirking face in. But of course, I couldn't.

Less than 2 seconds had passed since I was paralysed and suddenly I felt my body tipping backwards. I tried to lean forward but it was a wasted effort. I had been leaning backwards when I was paralysed.

My hair was suddenly getting wet. I was falling backwards through the waterfall. I heard the shattering of glass and instantly I felt the glass embedding itself in my back. The last thing I saw before I fell down to the stairs (a good 15 meters below) was my father's eyes widening in horror.

I should have been scared for myself. But the only thing I was, was scared for my father. Without that Arc Reactor, the shrapnel will soon be penetrating his heart. I couldn't lose him again.

Pain. That's the only thing that was registering. After plummeting down through the waterfall, I'd landed on the stairs below. My right arm was twisted at an awkward angle beneath my body and I was pretty sure my left leg was broken, if not both. If I could have cried, I would be bawling my eyes out. Water was falling onto my face and body from the still flowing waterfall above.

I could hear Obadiah talking above. "Too bad you involved Morgan in all this. I would have preferred that she lived."

No! I tried to scream out to tell Dad I was still alive but I couldn't. I suddenly realized that even if I could yell, I would have been a mistake. If Obadiah realized I was alive, he might want to finish the job.

I heard the shutting of a briefcase followed by heavy footsteps leaving the room.

From the way I'd fallen, I could see into the garage and a familiar blue light caught my eye. The Mark I Arc Reactor. Hope began bubbling inside me. If Dad could make it to the old Reactor, he would be able to replace it within his chest and live!

Unexpectedly, I remembered something Dad had told me two years earlier about the Stark Paralyser. You couldn't be paralysed twice. If you were already paralysed and heard it again, you wouldn't be frozen for 30 minutes, only 15! That meant Dad only had ten minutes until he would be able to move again. I prayed that it would give him enough time to reach the reactor.

The house was eerily silent. I could picture my father lying still on the couch above me. I wondered what was going through his head, if he believed he'd really just lost his only child, his beloved daughter.

Through the silence of the house, I began hearing noises. Grunting and shuffling. The sounds were coming closer. It clicked with me that Dad was moving again, or at least trying. I was amazed. It couldn't have been more than 8 minutes since he was paralysed. It took a minimum of 13 minutes for the effects to start wearing off on even the strongest person.

"Morgan..." Suddenly my father's whitened face came into my view. He looked worse than ever.

I began making frantic movements with my eyes, looking from him to the Reactor in the garage. No doubt he'd already thought of that but he couldn't waste anytime with me, he needed that Arc Reactor now.

"..go.." I managed to choke out with great difficulty. My whole body felt on fire from the fall and the paralysis only intensified that pain.

He understood he had to leave me but he picked up my hand and gave it a squeeze before edging past me down the stairs. As he reached the broken glass doors, he was reduced to crawling on his hands and knees. His time was running out.

Please, please can he make it God. I felt like sobbing as I watched my dying father drag himself towards his workbench. With the last of his strength, he leaned up on a bucket of tools and stretched his arm up, his fingers inches away from the glass box. Suddenly he fell, the box of tools flying everywhere. He was laying on his back, his breaths coming out in heavy gasps.

His eyes found mine as he whispered the words "I'm sorry,"

A single tear managed to fall down my cheek. I really was going to watch my father die and there was nothing I could do. I tried with all my might to lift my limbs but they felt like they were made of lead.

I closed my eyes. I couldn't do this. If he dies, let me die with him.

I waited, listening to what I thought were my father's last breath when I heard the mechanical sounds of Dummy moving, followed by the words "Good boy,"

The shattering of glass echoed through the room. My eyes flew open. Dad was clicking into place his original Arc Reactor. A smile managed to form on my face. It was close, but he had made it.

Dad began struggling his way back to me. He was still too weak to move but that wasn't going to stop him. Our attention was drawn to the slamming of a door upstairs. Oh God, please tell me he isn't back.

"Tony?" Rhodey's voice echoed through the whole house. Hopefully the garage was the first place he would check. "What the...?" I gathered he just spotted the smashed waterfall.

Come on, come on. All he had to do was glance down the stairs and he'd see me.

"Oh god! Morgan!" Rhodey had rushed down the stairs and was suddenly kneeling down beside me. By now, Dad had managed to reach the door, and was using its frame to stand up. Rhodey's eyes flew to Dad. "Tony, what the hell happened to you?"

"Call...ambulance. Help her," Dad croaked. Rhodey looked like he wanted a better explanation, but he instantly was pulling his mobile out of his pocket and was dialling 911.

It was obvious what Dad had to do now. What Dad was going to do now. But I was worried. That chest piece wasn't designed for sustained flying.

I was beginning to be able to move my body again. With my free hand, I tried reach across my body to Dad. He knew what I was trying to do and took it immediately as he leaned down to my level.

"I will be coming back to you. I promise," He knew I was smart enough to have worked out what he was going to do.

I nodded my head with some difficulty. "I know..." I whispered back.

He leaned down to kiss me softly on my cheek. "I love you."

"Take care of her," Dad said before turning and making his way over to the grid to suit up.

Rhodey took my free hand and squeezed it encouragingly. He was watching with awe written all over his face as the suit was being placed on my father. I tried not to cry as I watched Dad shoot up through the roof.

I moved my head slowly to look at Rhodey. "Pretty...impressive huh?" I asked. I was trying to remain calm despite my body going numb. I knew that wasn't good. I wished the pain would leave my body, I wish I could just go to sleep.

"Sure is," Rhodey smiled to me but I could see the fear in his eyes. I must have really looked banged up for Rhodey to be scared. Crap.

The sound of a wailing ambulance could be heard in the distance, gradually getting louder. But to me it was getting further away. It felt like a heavy fog was falling over me, restricting my senses. The fog got heavier. It hurt, like it was pushing down on my body. I felt something pulling me under. I was happy, that meant the pain would leave. But I knew it was bad. I shouldn't sleep. I might not wake up again. But despite that chilling fact, that's all I wanted to do. I wanted to give in.

Rhodey's face suddenly looked terrified. "Morgan? Morgan?!" His voice sounded far away, like he was in a tunnel. I was giving in.

The last thing I heard was Rhodey shouting "HELP HER!" to what I guessed was the arriving ambulance workers before I was pulled down into the fog.

____________________________________________________________________________________________

Beep.

Beep.

Beep.

Beep.

Okay, could that noise get anymore annoying?

I knew I was in the hospital. Not only did the beeping give it away, so did the smell of the hospital sheets.

The next I knew was that I was hurting all over. Also I had a cast on my right arm.

I could hear people talking in the room but I couldn't make out what they were saying. I thought about going back to sleep when the events of last night came back. I needed to know if Dad was okay, if he was even alive.

Slowly, I opened my eyes. Immediately everyone's attention was on me. As my eyes adjusted to the light, I saw Pepper and Rhodey standing beside my bed. But no Dad.

"Dad...?" I asked with uncertainty in my voice.

Pepper realized what I was thinking. Tony was dead. "Don't worry Morgan, he's fine. He just woke up himself. He said he wasn't going to spend another second in a hospital gown. How are you feeling?" She smiled at me sweetly.

"Sore," I admitted. "Wait...you said Dad just woke up?"

Pepper exchanged a glance at Rhodey before looking to me. "I think it'll be easier if your father explains it."

I nodded, but stopped. Too much pain. I was still surprised I was alive. I thought I might have landed on my neck wrong, snapped something. Something unrepairable.

Rhodey picked up my hand and looked down at me. "You gave us all quite a scare."

I tried to give them an innocent look. "Sorry,"

My eyes scanned the room. I was instantly aware of how crowded it was. "Why is my room overflowing with flowers?" I liked it but it was odd. Who would have sent that many bouquets of flowers?

Pepper grinned as she too looked around the room. "Because people heard you were in hospital. You're quite loved," She said, gesturing to the mounds of flowers.

I opened my mouth to ask what they'd told the media about my hospitalization when my attention was suddenly drawn to a figure in the doorway.

"Dad!"

Immediately he was at my bedside. "Hey baby, you're finally awake," He observed.

"How long was I out?"

"You've been unconscious for 14 hours," He drew a chair up beside my bed and sat down. His hand grabbed mine and he squeezed it gently. "You have no idea how scared I was. When Stane paralysed me, the only think I could think was that I hoped you wouldn't come upstairs. So what's the first thing you do?" He laughed but the pain was evident on his face. Pepper and Rhodey had silently left the room, aware this conversation was meant for me and Dad only.

"Sorry about that," I tried to joke but I still felt like hell. Thinking back over the night, there was something I was puzzled about. "How did Obadiah get his ear plugs in so fast before paralysing me?"

"We heard you coming," He confessed. I must have had a hurt look on my face because he quickly added; "It wasn't your fault, you had no idea who was up there. But when I saw you come up those stairs...I swear my heart stopped," I was amazed at how much Dad looked...human. He'd always hid his emotion but now, here he was divulging them to me. "And then you went...crashing into that waterfall..." Here a tear slid down my father's face. I raised my hand slowly and wiped it away. "I thought I'd lost you,"

"Well I'm fine. I feel fine," I tried to smile and reassure him. Although I thought it was great Dad was showing a human side, I didn't like that I was causing him pain. "Actually I feel like hell."

He laughed at that. "I'm not surprised. You have a broken arm, a broken leg, a hairline facture of the cheek bone and four broken ribs," Oh.

As I raised my head and looked down at my body, I spotted my legs. My right leg was complete in a white cast that went from just below my knee to my ankle. The next thing I did was grab the hospital gown I had on and look down at my torso. It was bandaged up tightly for the ribs. I'm sure I had bruises from my face to my legs but I didn't want to imagine that. I probably looked a mess.

"Pepper said you were in a hospital gown?"

Dad looked away embarrassingly. "I'll tell you about it later," He promised.

I nodded my head slowly. My eyelids suddenly felt heavy. I couldn't hold them open any longer. Dad stroked my hair back from my face gently before giving me a kiss on the forehead. After that I was asleep.


	13. Chapter 13

When I woke up, the first thing I saw was the clock on the wall telling me it was 11 a.m. I'd gotten a few hours sleep so I gathered before I'd fallen asleep, it was about 8 a.m.

I yawned and went to stretch but stopped instantly as I felt pain shoot up my spine. As I lowered my arms down, I noticed something. In the same moment Dad entered the room.

"Please tell me you didn't sign my arm cast while I was asleep!" I tried to look serious but really I thought it was hilarious.

Dad faked an innocent look before he took a seat beside my bed. "Maybe I did..."

I shook my head but grinned. "So...what happened after you left?"

Instantly Dad looked down, avoiding my eyes.

"Come on Dad,"

He looked back up to me and sighed. "Pepper called me, saying she was at Stark Industries. Stane had made his own suit and that's why he stole my Arc Reactor, to power it. I flew over there and...well, battled him,"

I looked at him confusingly. "What do you mean battled?"

"Well...he knocked us onto the freeway..."

I sat there for over half an hour as Dad began explaining last night from the time he left me to how he'd almost incinerated himself in the plant's Arc Reactor. My eyes were wide and my jaw dropped as I listened to how he'd risked his life to stop Obadiah. I felt a twinge of sympathy as he talked about Obadiah's death but that quickly vanished as I remembered everything he'd put us through. I couldn't say he deserved to die but he'd done some horrible things from trying to kill me and Dad to risking those poor people's lives on the freeway.

"So...he got...incinerated in the Arc Reactor?" I asked wearily.

Dad nodded his head solemnly. I couldn't begin to understand or imagine how he felt. Obadiah had been not only his friend, but his father's friend.

A silence descended in the room. I couldn't stand it, I needed him to talk.

"But...Pepper said you were in a hospital gown?"

Dad looked up to me and laughed nervously. "Oh, that...I was kinda...knocked unconscious by the blast the Arc Reactor caused. It was kinda lucky that I was because it gave the Mark I Arc Reactor time to recharge and recover from the fight. If I hadn't been unconscious, I'd probably be dead,"

I tried to ignore that last comment. I didn't want to think about how close Dad had come to death...again.

"So...Pepper took you to the hospital and that's why you were in a gown?"

"Yes. Pepper insisted on the hospital but as soon as I was awake, I was outta that stupid gown."

I laughed. I know how he felt. The hospital gowns are awful.

"What are you going to tell the media?" He'd (obviously) been seen on the freeway last night and was no doubt splashed across the front pages this morning.

Dad shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly. "I have a media conference to explain last night in an hour," He said, glancing down at his watch. "That Coulson guy said he'd prepared something for me. Apparently the "Iron Man" was my bodyguard or something along those lines,"

"A bodyguard? Are people going to believe that?"

Yet again Dad simply shrugged his shoulders.

"Iron Man...hmm...has a nice ring to it. Though technically you should be called Gold Titanium Alloy Man but I don't think that's as catchy,"

We laughed, me a little less enthusiastically as it hurt too much.

"Speaking of the media, what did you tell them about my hospitalization?" I was curious to know what the world had been told.

"You tripped and fell down the stairs,"

"What?! Couldn't you have said something more...interesting like my Audi fell on my while I was working on it?" Now I was gunna be known as clutzy for the rest of my life!

"Hey, it wasn't my idea! Thank Agent Coulson for that cover story," Dad said grinning.

I sighed. "How long do I have to stay here?" I'd barely been here for a day (most of that time was spent unconscious) and I was already sick of it.

"Oh, a week...maybe two. The doctor says it depends on how long it takes for your ribs to recover," He spoke seriously but suddenly a beam appeared on his face. "I can't wait till your outta here, cause we have a lot of work to do," He could have easily done this work by himself but I was happy he was going to wait for me. "I need a new Arc Reactor, this one is getting annoying," He said as he pulled open the front of his shirt. The next moment I was almost doubling over in laughter. Still attached to the outside of the old miniature Arc Reactor was the ring that read "Proof that Tony Stark has a Heart."

We spoke for a few more minutes (me still trying to hold in my laughter), before he looked down at his watch and told me he had to go. He kissed my gently and promised he'd be back in a couple of hours.

Before he left the room, he reminded me to keep an eye on the news for the conference.

___________________________________________________________________________________________

I kept the TV on the news channel Dad had said would be screening the Conference live. I still had 15 minutes before it begun. I suddenly had to urge to see my reflection. Very slowly, I swung my legs over to the side of the bed and gingerly lowered myself to the ground. It hurt less than I thought it would. I hobbled over to the bathroom and shut the door.

I turned around and gasped as I saw my reflection. I had a huge bruise on the side of my cheek, the one I'd landed on. I also had some cuts on my face from the glass of the waterfall. Carefully, I turned around and rose up my gown. Across my back were not only nasty bruises and cuts but also deep red lines from the edge of the stairs. Just looking at them seemed to make them hurt more. I hoped that I wouldn't get any scars from the some of the huge cuts on my back.

I sighed and begun walking back to my bed. I stopped halfway and looked around the room at the flowers. Their smell and sight invaded the senses but I liked it. It brought colour to an otherwise dreary room. I took some cards from the bouquets of flowers, curious to see just who had sent them. There was a beautiful arrangement of sent from a modelling agency that wanted me to sign with them, flowers that ranged from Tulips to Lily's from fans (fans of what though? I'd never done anything for them to be fans of), some very pretty arrangements from boys (some who had been brave enough to write down their phone numbers) and even a beautiful arrangement of orchids (my favourite flower) from Pepper. I smiled brightly, completely forgetting about what I'd just seen in the bathroom mirror.

Just as I'd settled myself down on my bed, a cute (very cute) doctor walked in. He couldn't have been over 20. I wondered how someone that young could be a doctor. He had medium blonde hair that made him look like he'd just walked in from surfing, bright blue piercing eyes and a smile to die for.

"Hi, Morgan. Good to see you awake," He smiled down at me. It felt like my heart was going to jump out of my chest. My heart monitor registered the suddenly speed at which my heart was beating. Oh God, how embarrassing.

But the doctor kept his smile and pretend to ignore it. He walked to my bedside and looked over me quickly. "How are you feeling?"

"Umm...good, Dr..." I leaned slightly and squinted at his name badge. "Shephard."

"Call me Daniel," I felt a blush making my way up my cheeks as he smiled more. He looked at some of my monitors and checked my I.V.

I remembered my trip to the bathroom and how I looked. I suddenly felt stupid. Here I was, blushing over a cute Doctor where he probably thought I looked like crap. But despite my humility, I was curious. "How could someone as young as you be a doctor?" I was surprised at myself. Despite my beating heart, my voice sounded calm.

He had picked up my chart and was flipping through it before he placed it back down, still smiling. God, that smile could light up the dark. It was gorgeous. He was gorgeous.

"Well, like yourself, I have an above average IQ. I graduated high school at 15, finished my medical degree by 18 and I've been working here ever since," Wow. Hot and smart. "Do you have any questions about your condition?"

"Uhh...no," I smiled slightly and diverted my eyes from his face.

He reached out and rested his hand lightly upon mine. "Well if you think of any, just let me know," He lifted his hand and turned to leave the room. As he reached the door, he looked over his shoulder and winked at me.

He winked at me! I felt over the moon. There was no way he could have any interest in me with the way I looked but I was still ecstatic.

I was picturing his face in my mind when my attention was draw to the TV. An anchorwoman was sitting behind a desk with a serious look upon her face. "A Press Conference has been called here at Stark Industries after last night's unusual events. A man, in what appears to be a Red and Gold Iron Suit, was seen battling-". She stopped mid sentence as, I gathered, someone spoke in her ear piece. "The Conference is starting here live on NBC News. Maybe we will finally know just who is this Iron Man."

The scene on screen changed from the studio to the familiar Stark Industries Press Room. There were rows upon rows of reporters waiting for Tony Stark to appear and reveal the truth of last nights events.

A hushed silence fell over the crowd as Rhodey walked up to the podium. "By now, you've all received the official statement about last's night's events. A Stark prototype malfunctioned, and caused damage to Stark Industries, and the surrounding area. Fortunately, a member of Mr. Stark's personal staff was nearby and able to…"

My mind wasn't taking in what he'd said. I'd already heard the real story anyway and my mind was back on Dr Shephard...Daniel. Suddenly I heard my father's name and my attention was back to the screen.

"And now, Mr. Stark will read a prepared statement. He will not be taking any questions."

I watched as Rhodey stepped aside and my father took his place in front of the crowd. "It's been a while since I was last in front of you so I'm going to stick to the cards," He lifted his hand which contained the cue cards in question. Everyone chuckled lightly.

"There has been speculation that I was involved with the events that took place last night-"

Before Dad could even finish his first sentence, someone in the front row raised their hand and shouted out a question.

"I'm sorry, but do you honestly expect us to believe that it your bodyguard in a suit?"

I realized, with anger, who had interrupted my father. Even though the camera shot only showed the back of the reporter's heads, it was hard to miss her blonde hair and her snide voice.

Dad didn't seem fazed at all."I know it seems confusing," He said, equally snide. "And it's one thing to contradict the official story, but making accusations that I'm a superhero-"

"I never said you were a superhero," She'd caught him out.

"Didn't you?" Dad looked stuck for one second before he recovered himself...slightly. "Well, good, because that would be ridiculous, and...fantastic. I'm just not the heroic type, clearly." What a big pile of bull that was. He was the most heroic person I'd ever met. "What, with all my public mistakes-"

Rhodey leaned over and whispered something in his ear. Thank God otherwise Dad could have rambled on about his many mistakes. That would take a while.

Dad recovered himself and looked quickly down to his cards. "The truth is..."

He hesitated. Everyone was on the edge of their seats (in my case, bed) waiting to hear what he was going to say.

He locked eyes with the camera (I felt like he was staring out to me) then down to the press. "...I am Iron Man."

There was instant uproar. Everyone was up on their feet, screaming out to Tony but it was all one big roar. I felt my eyes widen and my jaw drop. In anger.

"WHAT?!"

Someone was going to have hell to pay when he got back here.


End file.
